Lena
by the frozen cherry
Summary: When Natasha and her partner Clint were given a mission by S.H.I.E.L.D, to investigate to happenings of the supposedly inactive Black Widow Program, she was not expecting to face her past so dramatically, fight for her future and face the person she had to leave behind...
1. Part 1

'It looks a lot different from how I remembered it' Natasha remarked to her partner, Clint as they lay camouflaged against the snow staring at the infamous compound which apparently contained the Black Widow program and the Red Room Academy. 'See over there' she said gesturing to the right end of the compound 'there didn't used to be an entrance there, it was to the left and see where those guards are patrolling?'

Clint nodded, following his partner's line of sight

'That's where the girls are kept. There are patrols around that area 24/7 so no one can escape, once you are in the program the only way out is death' she said grimly, remembering the days were she dreamt of what was out there, past the high electrified barb wired fence. She didn't have many memories of her days in the red room, the KGB had seen to that with their brainwashing techniques but that was one of them.

Though she had been born after the Cold War had officially ended the government at that time had still wanted to have a back up plan, just in case something was to flare up again between Russian and the USA, thus the Black Widow Program had been activated. They took several orphaned girls and trained them to kill and then set them on each other, so the victor, the most lethal killing machine could become the Black Widow and be sent out to work.

'Well you did escape' Clint remarked, nudging Natasha's side, recognising the signs that she was remembering her less than perfect past.

'Well with your help' she replied, remembering that instead of killing her, like he had been ordered to do , he offered her a job at S.H.I.E.L.D, taking her away from the agency and giving her a chance to clean up her past.

'So Fury was right, there is something going on here' Clint remarked. It was nearly a year since the battle against the Chitauri fleet in New York and him and Natasha were working both for S.H.I.E.L.D but also taking some missions with the rest of the Avengers. 'I thought that you said that they stopped the program when you officially became the Black Widow?'

'They could have started it up again once I defected, though it don't think it's the KGB running it anymore'

'What makes you say that?' Clint asked as Natasha crept forward across the snowy ground to get a closer look.

'I just...' Natasha hesitated, trying to find the right words, not wanting Clint to thing she was being stupid. 'I'm just not getting the same vibes of the place' she said finally.

'Vibes - seriously Nat? You're not getting the same vibes. How am I meant to explain that to Fury?'

'Clint do you remember that time when we had to investigate that Circus a couple of years ago and you knew immediately before you even set foot in the place that it was the Carson Carnival of Travelling Wonders?'

'Yes...'

'Well, this place, though it may look practically the same feels different and besides the guards are wearing a different uniform'

'Guards can change their uniform from time to time Nat' Clint replied 'I still think it's the KGB up to their old tricks, trying to create a new Black Widow to replace you'

'Urgh! I'll get you the proof Barton' Natasha replied edging closer towards the compound, walking slowly, years of practise living out here, in the depths of Siberia, meaning that the snow did not crunch under her boots.'Keep an eye out for me Hawkeye' she stated

'Will do Widow' Clint replied, knocking up an arrow ready to fire, in case someone attacked her.

Natasha reached the boundary of the compound. She knew she was right, it was not the KBG operating here, it was something which felt a bit more sinister- if that was possible.

Clint watched as Natasha made her was towards the entrance of the compound. He knew he shouldn't have goaded Natasha, her inklings were normally correct, it was just they needed solid, hard proof, to present to Fury and the rest of the council. He was secretly worried about Natasha, he knew she was more than capable of looking after herself, but she had been acting slightly differently ever since they had been dropped off in Russia. They had been to Russia before on missions and she had seemed to be fine then, so he wondered if her strange moods now were because this mission meant that she had to revisit her past.

'I'm almost there' he heard her whisper over the communicator

'Good luck' he replied

'So what are you going to do for me, when I prove you wrong?' she asked as she reached the entrance and prepared to attack the first guard.

'I don't know' he replied, aiming at the man, Natasha was about to strike, covering her back.

'I can think of a few things'

Clint chuckled; he could practically see her teasing smile

'So what are you doing to do for me if I'm right?' he asked as he watched her swoop in and take out the first guard with a quick punch to the jaw.

'Well firstly you are not right and secondly I'm a bit busy now' she replied as she moved into the compound and prepared to take out the next guard. 'Hawkeye, are you still covering me?' she asked

'I've got your back Widow' he replied following in her footsteps and heading closer towards the compound

'Good' she remarked as she took out the next guard.

Suddenly alarms started to go off, ringing out all over the compound and shattering the quiet which had previously covered the snowy landscape

'Nat what did you do?' Clint asked hurriedly 'get out of there'

'I did nothing' she replied indignantly 'one of the guards must have sounded the alarm before I took them out. Anyway it's nothing I can't handle'

'Widow, I can't cover you if there are loads of guards' Clint said urgently 'back out now, whilst you still can and we'll come back with reinforcements another day.'

'Clint, we need solid evidence and if we come back another day they will be expecting us and have even more security' Natasha replied facing the guards which were approaching and pulling out a gun.

As Natasha fired at the guards, Clint edged closer so he could take a good shot at them. He watched as Natasha showed of her ballet training but ducking and twirling to avoid the bullets which were being sent in her directing as she continued to shoot.

'A little help here Hawkeye would be greatly appreciated' she said breathlessly through the communicator.

'Right' Clint replied and began to fire arrows at the guards who were edging closer. 'Widow, look out' he said quickly, catching sight of more guards heading towards the red haired assassin, out of the corner of his eye.

'I've been hit' he heard her whisper as she continued to fire and the guards who were coming closer and closer. 'I'll be alright; it's just a flesh wound' though she winced and started swearing in Russian under her breath.

'I'm coming in' he replied running towards the entrance and firing for arrows at the guards

'You stay out of this Hawkeye' she replied sharply 'You need to report back to Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D can't lose both of us'

'I'm not leaving you there Natasha!' he shouted, watching in horror as the normally fierce redhead suddenly slumped to the ground, as a man emerged for amongst the guard and injected something into her arm before ordering his men to carry her away as the remaining guards closed the gates, leaving him trapped outside as his partner was left to the mercy of her captors.

'Hawkeye, what's the situation?' he heard Agent Hill, their new supervisor asked over the communicator.

'The Black Widow is down' he whispered 'She's been captured'

'Captured?'

'Well they haven't killed her just yet' he replied grimly, wondering if he would ever see Natasha again. He wanted just to storm into the compound and find where the guards had been ordered to take her lifeless body, but he knew that he needed reinforcements and he need to be able to fight another day.

'We're sending in a quinjet to pick you up' Agent Hill said over the communicator 'stay where you are and don't do anything stupid.'

* * *

Natasha blearily opened her eyes as water was rudely splashed in her face. Still groggy from whatever they had injected her with, she looked around and realised that she was strapped to a hard wooden chair in the middle of a dark room.

'I never thought I would see you back here again Black Widow' came a voice from her past 'or should I say Natalia Shostakova'

'It's nice to see you again Boris' she replied sarcastically, struggling against the leather straps which were keeping her tied to the chair, as the man appeared out of the shadows 'and I prefer to go by my maiden name thank you very much' she added

'So what are we going to do with you?' he asked, his thick Russian accent seeping through his English, as he cupped he face, running a hand along her jaw line before slapping her across one of her cheeks. 'Well I could use you to show the girls what happens when you run away from the program and turn into a traitor' he muttered. 'Won't that be fun' he added evilly, before stalking out of the room, leaving Natasha in the darkness wondering what he was going to do with her and hoping that Clint or the rest of the Avengers would find her and rescue her soon.

* * *

**So what do you think? Do you want to read more?**

**This is my first go at a piece of Avengers fanfiction. After I saw the film and started to do some background research into the chracters, especially Natasha and Clint, this story idea hit me and I had to write it. I am very new to the Marvel Universe,so please let me know if I have made some huge mistakes so I can correct them.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter and would like to see more!**

**Cherry :)**


	2. Part 2

'Why am I still alive?' she asked her captor on the third day since she had been taken. 'Why have you not killed me yet?'

'And waste the opportunity of humiliating you, like you humiliated all of us when you defected' he replied. 'Who do you now work for?' he asked slapping her across her already bruised, raw face. They had had this conversation many times but she still refused to talk. As he continued to beat her, Natasha struggled against the straps which tied her to the chair, trying to break free.

'I would not try that if I were you, Natalia' Boris whispered into her ear 'I know your tricks, I taught them to you' he said referring to her neat little trick of standing up and using the chair she was tied to as a weapon. 'Let's see what happens when you have an audience' he added before shouting out in rapid Russian for the girls to be brought in.

Natasha watched as a group of what must have been around fifteen girls, all different ages trooped into the room and all wearing the same dark blue uniform, stood with a military like posture, facing her with cold expressionless faces.

'Girls, may I introduce Natalia Shostakova, the Black Widow' Boris said in Russian, gesturing to the helpless Natasha, who was now feeling like an animal in a zoo.

'I already told you, I prefer my maiden name' she counted. 'If you're going to kill me at least get my name right. Why should I keep my husband's name when he is dead? What you didn't think that the Black Widow was actually a widow?' she asked upon noticing the girls' shocked expressions which were quickly masked.

'I thought you loved Alexei?' Boris asked toying with her 'You were so angry when he died, so violent and deadlier than before'

'Pah! Love is for children' she replied spitting in his face 'you taught me that'

'Where is Elena?' he asked suddenly, looking at the girls who were assembled in the room

'I'm here sir' came a small voice from the back of the group and a small red haired child emerged

'Come to the front girl' Boris ordered. 'I want you to see what happens if you have weaknesses'

The girl, who must have been no more than six years old, headed to the front on the group until she was almost directly in front of Natasha, whose eyes widened with recognition, when she saw child.

'Look at the infamous Black Widow, so helpless' Boris said before slapping Natasha once again.

Natasha braced herself as his onslaught continued as be continued the pound her body, insulting her in both English and Russian. She was not weak and she would show him that he could not break her but she hoped her team would find her soon.

* * *

'So what happened, Agent Barton?' Director Fury asked peering down at Clint, who was sitting down at the end of the long table. 'I sent my two best agents into the place, expecting results and only one comes out!'

'Well you were right sir' Clint replied not looking up and the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, 'the place has not been abandoned, there is something going on there.'

'Do you think that the KGB is creating a new Black Widow?' Fury asked

'Sir, Agent Romanoff, before she was captured, thought that it was another organisation or group who had taken over the compound, which is heavily defended, more so than we were expecting'

'And what made her say that it was not the KGB?'

'Well she said that...' Clint hesitated trying to think of the best way the phrase what Natasha had said.

'What did she say Agent Barton?' Fury asked

'She said that she was not getting the same vibes off the place' Clint replied quickly

'_Vibes _Agent Barton?'

'Well she also mentioned that the guards had a different uniform' Clint admitted, waiting for Director Fury's scathing reply

'I see' was his only response before gathering up all the files belonging to the mission and stalking out of the room.

'Sir, we have to and rescue her!' Clint called out after him, following him out of the room through the headquarters. 'We can't just leave her there'

'Agent Barton' the man said sternly, turning around. 'Whilst your concern for Agent Romanoff is admirable, she has put us in a very difficult situation. Her captors, whoever they may be, will be expecting our return so we must proceed with immense caution. Now if you will excuse me, I have other things to attend to'

* * *

'You monster' Natasha stated with difficulty, through her now swollen bloody lip, as Boris was about to leave the interrogation room. 'How dare you take those children away from their homes, teach them how to kill and take away their innocence!'

'I recall that you did not seem to mind when it was done to you' he replied coolly raising one of his eyebrows and walking back into the room to face her. 'I remember you Natalia, so keen and so eager to please. Do you remember that you laughed when you made your first kill?'

Natasha closed her eyes, trying to block what he was saying, trying to think about her blood stained ledger, the ledger she was trying to clean.

'Trying not to think about it, eh?' he asked leaning in closely 'You've changed, Natalia, one time you revelled in your kills'

'I was naive and blind' she replied 'and I trusted you'

'Well trust is a very fickle thing' Boris remarked smirking

'She was meant to be safe. Tatiana was meant to look after her' Natasha stated angrily, glaring at her former mentor who had betrayed her in more ways than one.

'But you abandoned her' he replied with a smirk. 'You abandoned her when you ran away and left her to the mercy of the state. You should be glad she happened to come my way; she could be living on the streets'

'I was going to come back to her!' Natasha exclaimed 'and I did come back to find that the house she was meant to be in had burnt down and there were no survivors. I thought she was dead'

'Well you were meant to be dead when I rescued you from that burning building' Boris replied, referring to the fact that he had been the one who had rescued the five year old Natalia from her home in Stalingrad when it was burning down and her parents had already been killed by the fire.

'So what are you going to do with the girls?' she asked curiously, still tied to the chair 'how can you have them fight each other to the death when they are all different ages? At least we were more or less the same age'

'Ah but you see, that was the KGB's biggest mistake' Boris replied, almost smugly. 'They had no contingency plan if you died or for some reason defected. So when you disappeared there was no one else to replace you. Don't you see all these girls are all going to trained to be the Black Widow and when they are ready, they will be sold off to the highest bidder' he said gleefully.

'So the KGB does not know about this?' she asked while he was still crowing about how clever he was and how rich he was going to become.

'Of course not!' he stated 'when you disappeared they shut down the program but I bet once I dangle a few of my girls under their noses, they will snap them up. Who will be able to resist beautiful multitalented but deadly assassins? Well I'll leave you to your thoughts Natalia, I have places to be' he stated before marching out of the room.

As he left Natasha smirked, though it was hidden from view by her red hair falling in front of her face. Even when she was the one tied to the chair, she was still able to manipulate a man to make him tell her what she wanted to know, she was not just called the Black Widow for nothing. She had been right, she thought triumphantly. This place was working independently from the KGB. Oh how she wished she could rub it Clint's face that she was right and make him do whatever she wanted him to do. She leant back and closed her eyes, trying to conserve what was left of her energy she knew she would need it when the team came to find her.

* * *

**A huge thank you to everyone who read and alerted/favourited the last chapter and a special thank you to the four people who reviewed the last chapter, reading your reviews gave me the boost to continue with this story and write this chapter.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review to let me know what you thought and what I can improve**

**Thanks again!  
**

**_Cherry :)_  
**


	3. Part 3

'I want you in the training room in 15 minutes' was the order Natasha was roughly woken up with. She rolled over in the hard grey pallet she had been given to sleep on and slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to her unfamiliar surroundings. As her eyes adjusted to the light she realised that Boris was standing over her.

'Fighting before breakfast' she stated sitting up, stretching out her sore stiff limbs whilst raising a questioning eyebrow. 'What kind of place is this?'

'You remember where it is?' he asked, ignoring her comment before walking out of the room.

Natasha stood up slowly, continuing to stretch out whilst wondering what Boris wanted with her. She was no longer being kept tied to the chair but had been locked in a small room and had been more or less left alone, apart from a guard bringing her dinner and supervising her trips to bathroom. Deciding not to waste anymore time, she walked out of the room, surprised to find it unlocked and unguarded, and headed to where she remembered the training room being.

Walking down the dark hallways, she could not believe she was back in this place, the place she had spent most of her childhood, the place that had made her the woman she was today and the place of her nightmares. What she found really odd was there was nobody in the hallways, or guards escorting her anywhere, and it was all slightly unnerving, as if they were giving her a chance to try and escape.

As Natasha walked towards the training room, she contemplated turning around and heading towards the exit and escaping. Then she remembered that she was in the middle of nowhere in Siberia and would not stand a chance against firstly, the elements, in her current attire (her dirty, blood stained, S.H.I.E.L.D standard issue cat suit) and secondly, against Boris and his guards because she was completely defenceless, all her weapons, including her special Widow Bites and communicator which had been confiscated when she had been taken.

Natasha also remembered one of Boris' favourite phrases '_shoot them while they are running, don't make it seem like an execution'_, and she had spent hours shooting at moving targets because of it. If she ran, she would only be giving them an excuse to kill her. As a result of all these combined factors and then fact that she was also really curious as to what Boris was doing and why he had not killed her yet.

Finally reaching the training room, which was on the other side of the compound from where she was being held, she opened the door and stepped into the room, where she had spent so much time as a child, being trained in various techniques of how to defend herself and how to take a life. She looked around the room. It had seen better days, paint was peeling off the walls, there was a large crack running down one of the walls and the training equipment looked well used. Actually Natasha was certain that it was the equipment she had been taught with, she could see a familiar blood stain running down one of the sides of one of the punch bags in the far corner from where she had thrown a knife at Masha, just because she was annoying her. She could definitely tell that this place was lacking government funding.

Natasha was jolted out of her thoughts by Boris calling her over in Russian.

'Ah, Natalia I'm glad you made it. I was beginning to think that you had got lost' he said with a malicious smile, implying something which only she could pick up on.

'Well this place is basically the same and the Agency did not wipe as much of my memory as they had hoped' she replied with the same smile and walked towards him and the group of girls standing at the side of the room.

'Irina here wants to fight you' he announced, gesturing to the blonde haired girl who was clearly the oldest of the group and was limbering up by the edge of the mats. 'She thinks she can beat you'

Natasha chuckled 'No one ever beats me' she replied, standing taller and taking a closer look at the girl.

'I can beat you' Irina replied standing up the face Natasha. 'I'm going to be the next Black Widow'

'There can only be one Black Widow, kid' Natasha replied 'And while I'm still alive, it's going to be me'

'Well I'm glad this is a fight to the death' the blonde haired girl replied confidently

Natasha masked her shock at hearing a girl who could be no older than 15 saying such things and she quickly reminded herself that this was not a typical teenager, that she normally encountered in America, but one who had been trained to kill from a fairly young age.

'If I win, will I get breakfast?' she asked Boris, almost cheekily. 'You know I'm particularly partial to blinis'

'Choose your preferred weapon' Boris ordered, ignoring Natasha again.

Natasha just grinned to herself, knowing that by his tone of voice, Boris was getting very annoyed because she was pushing all the right buttons. She knew just how to get under a man's skin. She strode over to the wall were all the weapons were kept and saw Irina chose a particularly nasty looking knife. Natasha just smirked to herself, whilst the knife looked impressive she knew that particular make was very difficult to wield without the right training and since she knew Boris' methods she could be fairly certain that Irina had not been trained with that knife and had only picked it for show.

Both Boris and Irina gave Natasha weird looks, when she left the weapons cupboard with nothing apart from a standard issue knife, nothing impressive and flashy like the knife Irina was holding. As they stood facing each other, Natasha could see Irina smirk. Oh, how she wanted to wipe that expression off the girl's face, she needed to be taught a lesson not to under estimate your opponent.

As she got into the fight, Natasha actually found herself enjoying it, it actually felt quite good to spar with someone who was not Clint for a change. Clint was the only person in the whole of S.H.I.E.L.D who agreed to fight with her, after she had put several agents out of action and into the medical wing during her first weeks at S.H.I.E.L.D, when they were assessing her skills set. If her memory served her correctly, Natasha recalled that she might have put her assessor on best red for a month afterwards, forcing Fury to send her and Clint on a mission just to stop her causing havoc in S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters.

As she continued to block Irina's attacks, whilst making some of her own (the cut along Irina's arms showed that) her prediction about Irina were correct. Whilst she was wield in the knife in an alright manner, it was still rather clumsy, leaving her open to attack from Natasha's expertly wielded blade.

'I will beat you' Irina stated confidently as she prepared to make another attack. 'You are useless, I can see that you are tiring, you are slowing down' she added seeing Natasha winces as she was kicked in the side she had been shot. Irina took advantage of Natasha's momentarily weakness and she pushed her blade towards Natasha's neck and smirking believing that she had the upper hand.

Suddenly Natasha, ignoring the protests from her aching body, pushed back, sending Irina toppling to the ground and her knife clattering across the floor, leaving her practically defenceless and in a very venerable position. 'The first thing you have to know as the Black Widow' Natasha whispered bending down and moving her knife towards Irina's small neck 'is that you should never underestimate you're opponent. I might be weak from lack of food and tiredness because I haven't had a decent night's sleep in days and I am stiff and sore because I have been beaten black and blue by my captor. However you forget that I am the Black Widow and when I trained, I had to kill all the other girls I had trained alongside just because there can only be one Black Widow. It was the survival of the fittest and you would not even last two seconds in the real world'

There were gasps as Natasha placed the edge of her knife against Irina's neck, ready to slit it like she had down several times before. Then Natasha hesitate, what was the point, there was already far too innocent blood on the ledger she was supposed to be trying to clean. Even though Irina had been trying to kill her she was still innocent, brainwashed by a man who wanted to use her for his own gain. She looked across at Boris who was grinning evilly and she finally worked out what he was going to use her for, to fight against the potential Black Widows, so only the best were left. She then looked at the group of girls and she saw little red haired Elena's eyes watching in absolute fascination at the fight happening in front of her, losing her innocence.

Making her decision, as everyone else in the room waited with bated breaths, Natasha dropped her knife to the floor; she could not kill in front of her daughter.

Irina opened her eyes, wondering what was happening and why she was not dead yet.

'There has been too much blood spilt in this room already' Natasha remarked holding out her hand and helping the now scared teenager to her feet, before walking out of the training room, heading back to her room, determined to get the girls out of this nightmarish place.

* * *

'What's up Robin Hood?' Tony asked as Clint stormed into the rebuild renamed Avenger's Tower 'and where is Romanoff, I thought you two were joined at the hip?'

Clint ignored Tony's questions heading towards his room and slamming the door shut. In the privacy of his room, he threw his seemingly useless bow into a corner before sinking into his bed. He buried his head into his pillow, breathing in the lingering scent of Natasha's perfume from the last night they had spent together before the mission. This bed was the only place they truly let their guards down and were completely themselves. It was the only place they showed any weaknesses.

He could not believe he had not been able to prevent Natasha from being captured. He was meant to be her partner! He was mean to be fighting next to her, not standing metres back covering her, whilst she faced all the action, got injured and was captured. He was useless. He could also not believe that S.H.I.E.L.D was not planning a rescue mission. Wasn't Natasha one of their greatest assets? Someone they would not afford to lose?

With these troubled thoughts Clint drifted into an uneasy sleep, wondering if Natasha was ok and whether she was still alive.

* * *

**A big thank you again to everyone who is reading this story and I really appreciate the words of encouragement you leave in your reviews as it gives me the confidence to keep writing this story, as I am still fairly new to this fandom.**

**In earlier drafts of this chapter Irina was called Yelena after Yelena Belova from the original comics, who I found out whilst doing my research but then I decided to change her name because Yelena is too similar to Elena (I think they sound the same in Russian?)**

**I hope you liked the little hints of Clint/Natasha. I absolutely adore this pairing, so you will probably see more in the future.  
**

**Please drop me a review to let me know how I'm getting on and what I can improve  
**

**Many thanks,  
**

**_Cherry :)_  
**


	4. Part 4

__A/N: thanks to everyone who read the last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one!

* * *

_She was the Black Widow, who had been in countless amounts of fights and had sustained an innumerable number of injuries, yet nothing, not even Boris' beatings, could have prepared her for this amount of pain._

_Childbirth_

_'I can see the baby's head' Tatiana announced 'just a couple of pushes left Natalia and then it will all be over'._

_Natasha closed her eyes as another contraction hit her and she pushed with all her might, determined to get this child out of her._

_'One more Natalia push' Tatiana encouraged. Natasha closed her eyes and thanked a God she did not really believe in for Tatiana, the woman who had taken her into her home and had looked after her without asking any questions. After she had found out that Alexei had been killed, Natasha had gone on a killing spree which really raised the Black Widow's notoriety. She had then discovered she was pregnant and had ended up on Tatiana's doorstep in the cold, trying to keep her growing bump a secret from the Red Room Agency._

_'It's a beautiful baby girl' Tatiana whispered, as she held the now screaming pink baby, before placing her on Natasha's chest. 'She's got a good set of lungs on her'_

_'Hey, hey' Natasha whispered, trying to stop the baby from crying, stroking the newborn's damp red curls. She had no idea how to be a mother, she was not even meant to get pregnant in the first place. She had been raised to be a killer not a mother. _

_To her amazement, upon hearing her mother's voice, the baby quietened to a small, almost inaudible whimper. Natasha looked down at her child, her beautiful daughter and felt this strange emotion building up inside her: love._

_As she was growing up she was taught not to love, so she could be turned into the cold heartless killer the KGB desired, she had not even loved Alexei, he was just convenient and had adored her, however as her newborn daughter snuggled into her chest, she had this overwhelming desire to protect this child at all costs, this precious thing which had come from her, she loved this child._

_'Elena' she whispered pressing a kiss to the top of her newly named daughter's head. Elena, the one bright, shining thing, in her world of darkness._

_ They had been happy together, in their own world, hiding from the Red Room Agency, the KGB and the government. That was until Boris found them._

* * *

'Barton!' Tony shouted loudly, knocking on his fellow avenger's door. 'Barton, wake up'

'Maybe we should leave him alone, he's obviously worn out from his mission. Let the guy rest' Steve suggested

'But can't you see something's not right?' Tony asked, hammering on Clint's bedroom door again

'No'

'Well, where is Romanoff? Those guys are practically inseparable, yet Barton came back last night alone'

'What's all the noise?' a bleary eyed, Dr Banner asked, poking is head of his room, which was opposite Clint's. Unlike his teammates, he was not an early riser.

'Tony's trying to wake up Clint' Steve explained, shaking his head and gesturing to the man who was still bashing on Clint's door. 'You know Natasha could have come later, after Clint and could just be sleeping in her room' he suggested to his teammate.

'Ah, but you are wrong Mr Star Spangled Banner' Tony replied, turning around to face his team mate. 'Firstly, even if she was here, Ms Romanoff would not be in her room. Even though she might enter it every night, haven't you noticed that both her and our dear Agent Barton always leave his room together the following morning and secondly, I had JARVIS check for any signs of our favourite female avenger in the tower, he found none and not even the infamous Black Widow can out smart JARVIS, nothing can out smart JARVIS'

'You wanted something?' came a voice appearing at the end of the corridor. The three men standing outside Clint's bedroom door, whipped around to find the man who was meant to be sound asleep in his room, standing there with his arms crossed and one of his eyebrows raised at his teammate's antics.

'But ...what ...how...JARVIS told me that you were asleep in your room' Tony stuttered in disbelief.

'And I told him not to let you know my location' Clint replied

'Damn that A.I' Tony muttered.

'Where were you?' Bruce asked

'On the roof, I couldn't sleep' Clint replied, the lack of rest shown by the big black bags under his eyes.

'So where is your girlfriend?' Tony asked, recovering from his temporary shock

Clint's face darkened.

'Tony' Steve said warningly

'Natasha is not my girlfriend, we are just partners' Clint replied steadily

Tony muttered something which sounded like, _denial_, under his breath before continuing with this interrogation. 'Anyway where is our favourite red haired Russian?'

'Still in Russia' Clint replied shortly turning around and walking towards the main living area.

'How can she be in Russia, when you are back here?' Tony asked, hot on his heels as the rest of the team, bar Thor, who was still in Asgard.

'She was captured'

'What!' the three men exclaimed. They could not believe what they were hearing. 'How?'

'The question is not what or how' Clint replied 'the question is, what are we going to do about it? Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D aren't doing anything and we need to get Nat back'

And he says that there is nothing going on between them, Tony mused as Clint began to tell them want had happened and how they could get Natasha out.

* * *

Natasha looked up from her position lying on her hard pallet, resting her aching body parts, at the sound of the door to her small room/cell opening and the blonde haired Irina appearing in the doorway. She quickly reached over and grabbed the knife she had taken without anyone noticing from the training room and held it out in front of her.

'You won fair and square' Irina stated in whispered Russian, as she entered the room closing the door behind her. 'I'm sorry it's not the blinis you wanted' she said holding out a bowl of kasha, almost like a peace offering. 'You can put the knife down; I'm not here to fight you'

Natasha reluctantly put down her knife and took the bowl of Russian porridge. She sniffed it cautiously, checking for any hint of poison.

'It's just normal kasha' Irina stated holding out a spoon 'Boris told me to take it to you. He said I should feel humiliated in the presence of the person who beat me'

'Well I wouldn't put anything past Boris' Natasha remarked replying in Russian, deciding to have a spoonful of the gloopy substance, since her very sensitive nose had detected no poison and her stomach was growling like an angry bear. 'I haven't had kasha in ages' she stated 'I'm more of a bacon and eggs girl myself' she added remembering the delicious taste of the bacon Clint would fry up on Saturday mornings when they were not on duty. 'Did you want something?' she asked in between mouthfuls, noticing that the blonde haired teenager was still hovering in the room.

'Why did you defect?' Irina asked the older woman

'Well that is a good question' Natasha replied. 'I guess you could say that I defected because I was tired of being used, ashamed of all the red on my ledger and someone offered me a proposition I could not refuse a chance of a new life. Well at the time he was pointing an arrow at my heart, so if I had refused he would have killed me' Natasha remarked.

'But wouldn't have death been more honourable than defecting to the enemy?' Irina asked curiously

'When you are in a situation like that, survival instincts kick in and Boris' words of wisdom, fly straight out of the window' Natasha told the younger girl. 'The world out there is a scary place and you face situations which are completely out of your depth, like have you been taught how to fight invading aliens or a rampaging hulk?'

Irina shook her head. 'But I thought you were just an assassin' she stated

'I guess you could say that I do a bit on the side' Natasha replied with a hint of a smile.

'You know I never really wanted this' Irina said suddenly, taking Natasha by surprise and sitting down next to her. 'I'm different from the other girls; most of them cannot remember what life was like before they were brought here, but I can. Most of them were brought here as toddlers but I was ten, I'm fifteen now.

'You've been here five years?' Natasha asked, putting down her finished bowl of Kasha.

'I've been here since the beginning' Irina stated

'You know you are pretty good for someone who has not been trained since early childhood' Natasha conceded. 'Even with that knife you were using, though your footwork could do with a bit of work, ballet would help with that' she advised

'I haven't done ballet since I came here' Irina said looking down at the dark concrete floor.

'Don't you have any female handlers here?' Natasha asked in astonishment

'No, it's just Boris and the guards'

'No one to teach to ballet or other necessary skills?

'Necessary skills?' Irina asked, wondering what a woman could teach them instead of a man.

'You know, the art of seduction' Natasha replied grinning, that had been one of her favourite lessons.

'We have not been taught that' Irina said 'just how to fight and kill'

Then what is Boris doing with you? Natasha mused; this all sounded a bit strange. During her years in this compound she nearly had had as many ballet lessons as fighting ones, because ballet was thought to help with agility and footwork. There had been two female handlers, the hooked nosed Madame Bolshoi who taught ballet, whilst the beautiful Miss Anya taught the girls how to use their gender to their advantage. Boris talked about creating several new Black Widow, but the whole point about the Black Widow was that she was a seductive killer, who lured in her prey before delivering the fatal bite.

'So what did you want to be?' Natasha asked curiously

'You might laugh, but I just wanted to be like my mother' Irina admitted. 'She always seemed happy whatever she was doing, whether that be looking after me and my brother's or providing father with a hot meal from when he came back from the lab. Actually the only time the smile was not on her face was when the fire ripped through our home and she was screaming for me to run. I never saw her again' Irina gave a little sniff, trying to control her emotions.

'Don't show any signs of weakness' Natasha stated harshly.

'I know I shouldn't, but it is so hard. I don't want to be turned into a ruthless killing machine, I want to retain some humanity' Irina replied, pulling herself together. 'It is horrible to see the younger ones turning into monotonous robots, I'm so scared about what they will become. Though you give me hope' Irina stated looking directly at Natasha.

'How come?' Natasha asked, she was the ultimate assassin

'You didn't kill me' Irina replied simply 'so you must still have some compassion left in you and you said that you had a husband so you must have been in love, the Program didn't completely change you.'

Natasha chuckled 'If I had met you five years ago you would be long dead and buried by now' she replied. 'I was the ultimate cold hearted killer. Yes I was married though it wasn't for love, well not at least on my part'

'What do you mean?'

'We met when I was dancing in the corps de ballet of the St Petersburg State Ballet Company, undercover on a mission.' Natasha replied, wondering why she was telling the girl all of this. However she guess that if she was going to die in the next couple of days, she was surprised she was not already dead, then at least it would be good for someone to know the truth about the Black Widow and so she continued to tell Irina things she had not ever uttered to anyone, not even Clint.

'We met at the stage door, apparently he had noticed me whilst I was dancing and had enquired at the stage door about a red haired swan, we were doing Swan Lake. Anyway he took me out for dinner which was quite productive as I found out he knew the man I had been sent to kill. Once I had completed my mission, I expected the Red Room Agency or the KBG to tell me to end it but to my surprise they encouraged it. One thing led to another and we were married'

'Didn't you love him?' Irina asked absolutely enthralled in the story

'No I didn't, how could I when I had all the love stamped out of me' Natasha replied 'but he obviously adored me and he made me laugh'

'Then what happened?'

'Then he died. He was a fighter jet test pilot, the plane he was testing malfunctioned and he was killed. Though I never truly loved him, his death was enough to send me into a murderous rage and it was after his death that the Black Widow name gained international notoriety. It was only after I defected that I learnt that his death was not an accident like they told me but had been planned, from the very beginning. They used Alexei to unleash the Black Widow and he and I were just pawns in their game.'

'Are people going to come and rescue you?' Irina asked suddenly

'Probably not, since it is not the organisation I work for's way' Natasha replied evasively. 'Whilst she had just practically told this girl her life story, she still did not completely trust her enough to tell her that whilst S.H.I.E.L.D did not do rescue missions she was counting on the Avengers to launch one.

'Oh, I was just wondering if you could take me with you' Irina stated standing up

'Well help me escape and I'll think about it' Natasha replied cautiously, there was only one person she trusted completely and this girl was not Clint, she could just ben trying to gather information to get back into Boris' good books and what Natasha had told her, he already knew.

'Boris goes to Moscow tomorrow and takes half of the guards with him' Irina replied as she walked out of the room, leaving Natasha to mull over their exchange and contemplate what to do next, things were about to get very interesting.


	5. Part 5

One sharp, quick well placed kick, to the side of the guard's head was all that was needed to send the guard carrying in her breakfast, crumpling to the ground. After stepping over the guard's now unconscious body and all the kasha spilt all over the floor, Natasha poked her head out of her room/cell and upon noting the absence of anymore guards approaching, she crept out into the empty corridor.

The previous night she had spent a lot of time thinking out what to do next and how to best take advantage of fact that Boris was away in Moscow, leaving under half of his guards behind. She had been woken up by the sound of a fleet of helicopters taking off noisily. Finally as she had stared at the concrete ceiling of her cell, she decided that the best course of action was not to try and escape as soon as he left the compound because, even if she was able to get out of the compound, she would still be at the mercy of the harsh Siberian winter with no back up. Therefore she decided that her best bet would be to head towards the communications room and see if she could make contact with either S.H.I.E.L.D or the other Avengers, just to let them know she was alive. She had not been able to up to now because Boris had crushed her communicator with the heel of his book before her eyes, when she had still been tied to the interrogation chair.

Without making any sound, a skill she had been honing since early childhood, she stealthily creped along the dark grey corridor towards where she remembered the communications room being. Her logic was that if the training room and other rooms had stayed in the same location, then why should the communications centre be in a different place? Armed with only the knife she had taken from the training room she slowly opened the door to the communications room.

There was nobody inside, which Natasha thought was a little bit strange, but she had no time to question it as she hurried towards one of the screens. She stared at the ancient computer screens trying to work out how to send her message. In the many years since she had left this compound there had been many technological advances and she was used to working with the latest equipment at S.H.I.E.L.D so to be faced with such old technology was odd. It was also another sign that this place was not government funded.

She remembered that she had been taught how to hack into a computer system on machines very similar to the one in front of her (another skill she doubted Boris was teaching the girls) so eventually she was in.

The software on the screen reminded her of Skype, which she was very familiar with having spent many hours Skype calling Clint when they had been on different missions. Even when they were half a world away from each other, they were partners and liked to keep in contact with each other. She had actually had an inkling that something was going to go wrong with Clint when he failed to contact her just before his encounter with Loki and her inklings were normally right. She also knew that if S.H.I.E.L.D got her message then the Avengers would to, since Tony Stark had a habit of hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D's computer system just for fun and just to see what they were up to.

She typed S.H.I.E.L.D's emergency contact number followed by her own encrypted code, which she had retrieved from the secret compartment inside the sole of her right boot, into the software hoping that would allow her to contact Headquarters; otherwise she would have to do something a bit more drastic. She crossed fingers, whilst listening out for any guards outside she was not having much luck lately so someone somewhere owed her some. To her delight it worked and she was in to the S.H.I.E.L.D communications network.

After testing that the microphone in her headset was working she quickly recorded her message and sending it to S.H.I.E.L.D, she deleted all traces of her being on the system and turned the computer off and leaving the room exactly as she found it. She was tempted to destroy the computer as an extra precaution but she thought that would actually alert people to her being in the room and also she might need t use it again. She just hoped the message had got to the right place

Once leaving the communications room, she looked at her watch and after noting that she still had a good half hour before the guard outside her room regained consciousness she decided to hunt for her weapons which she knew Boris had confiscated when was brought in but would not have destroyed because he probably wanted to look at them in the lab. Her Widow's bites had evolved quite a bit since she had defected to S.H.I.E.L.D and she knew he would be curious to see how. Therefore, she took a deep breath before heading in the direction of the labs; place the place in the compound which held the worst memories.

* * *

'Fury wants us to come in' Steve announced, getting off the phone to the S.H.I.E.L.D director. 'Apparently they have some information about Natasha'

'Did he say what type of information?' Clint asked anxiously, looking up from the map on which he was trying to remember the location of the compound, since they had been dropped a way off and it had been Natasha leading the way.

'Only that he was not something he could discuss over the phone. He sounded serious'

'Damn!' Clint exclaimed slamming his hands down on the map, almost shattering the glass table underneath.

'Why is Barton going all hulk on my table?' Tony asked as he entered the room from playing in one of his labs, with Bruce trailing after him.

'Fury has information to tell us about Natasha that he can speak of over the phone' Steve told him

'Which means that she is dead' Clint mumbled miserably.

'Well we won't know for sure, unless we go' Bruce stated and with that they solemnly headed towards where Tony's private jet was parked, which would take them to S.H.I.E.L.D's Helicarrier.

* * *

'Sit down all over you and thank you for coming so quickly' Fury said as the four men entered the meeting room on board S.H.I.E.L.D's helicarrier. 'Earlier this morning we received a surprising message, apparently coming from Agent Romanoff. After running it through various security programmes and voice recognition tests we determined that-'

'-It was an imposter and that in fact Natasha id dead' Clint interjected pessimistically

'Quite on the contrary Agent Barton, that it was Agent Romanoff and she had somehow managed to send us this message, which I will now play for you' Fury stated as Natasha's voice began to fill the room.

_I hope this gets to you. I will have to be brief because the guards could find me at any moment. Anyway, I was right, this place is not being run by the KGB or the Red Room Agency, they do not even know about it. Instead it is being organised by Boris Yusupov, who seems to be the only one running the compound with some guards, there are no other handlers. From what I can gather, he is trying to produce not just one but several Black Widows, though their training does not seem to be a full as mine was. There are around fifteen girls from the ages of six to fifteen being held here. Boris is not here at the moment, he went to Moscow on important business this morning for an uncertain amount of time. I'm sorry I can't tell you more._

There was then a paused as if she was listening out for something or deciding what to say next.

_I know you don't do rescue missions but Clint, Elena's here- she's alive_

And with that the message cut off leaving the room in silence as they tried to take in what their absent teammate had just told them.

'So Natasha's vibes were right' Clint remarked looking pointedly at Director Fury who had not believed her.

'It would seem so, Agent Barton' Fury replied with a sigh. 'She also told us from very interesting information, Boris Yusspov has been on our records for some time since he was the original overseer of the Black Widow program and it now seems that he is the one actually running it, apparently single handedly.'

'So what are we going to do?' Steve asked, concerned about his teammate

'I'll come to that in a bit Steve, but firstly, Agent Barton would you care to tell us who this Elena is?' Fury asked as the rest of the occupents of the room turned to face the agent in question

* * *

When Natasha first entered the wing of the compound containing the labs a wave of memories hit her. Memories of white rooms and men in white coats, prodding, poking and injecting things into her as they tried to try and create the ultimate weapon. This was also the place where they tried to manipulate her memories and control her mind.

The red haired assassin shuddered, suppressing the memories which were rising to the surface, the memories which only normally appeared in her worst nightmares. The two labs she had already looked in where empty so she headed to the main one at the end of the corridor. Then she stopped, spotting a door, that she did not remember being their leading off the corridor. She walked up and looked at it closely. It was an unassuming wooden door however it was the high security voice recognition lock which really caught her attention. Boris was keeping something very secret behind this door.

'Boris Yusupov' she whispered to the lock, doing her best to imitate Boris' voice. She had spent so many years around him, so she hoped it would work.

It seemed that luck was on her side that day as the lock clicked, allowing Natasha entrance into the room. She cautiously pushed the door open with on hand, whilst holding the other one out in front of her clutching the knife so she could defend herself if she needed to. For all she knew Boris could have a secret hulk in there. She entered the room, which seemed to trigger the lights to come on. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness she saw something which shocked her to the core, there were row upon row of masks of her face, red curls, full lips and all.

Natasha ran.

She was not someone who tended to run, but what Boris was going to do to the girls made her physically sick. He was going to use her name and image to exploit them, leading them like lambs to the slaughter, whilst he got richer.

As she stumbled over the still unconscious guard and spilt kasha, collapsing on her hard pallet she realised that she couldn't just leave all the girls here, if she escaped. All of them would have to go with her because there was no way she was going to let them become Boris' pawns and then she realised that her escape plan had just got at least ten times harder and much more dangerous.

* * *

**So what do you think? **

**:)  
**


	6. Part 6

_'Shhh' Natasha whispered to her daughter, holding her close and rocking her slightly to try and Lena to sleep. 'Mother's here_ _lyubimaya, please go to sleep' she said pressing a kiss to the top of her daughter's bright red curls. Mercifully Lena quietened and rested her head on her mother's shoulder._

_In the peace that now filled the small nursery, Natasha started to rock backwards and forwards, knowing that the movement helped her daughter get to sleep. She began to hum as she moved around the room, her daughter's eye lids closing as she continued to sway from side to side. Lena was now almost a year old and had just started teething, which meant she was now getting lots of sleepless nights._

_Inhaling the soft scent of her daughter, Natasha could not believe how much her life had changed in the last eighteen months. When she had first discovered she was pregnant, to say she was displeased was an understatement (the multiple explosions which had occurred throughout St Petersburg were a sure sign of her displeasure). She had fled to the back alley ways of Moscow trying to find someone to get rid of the baby but when they told her that she was too far gone for them to carry out an abortion she ran and ran and ran, until she collapsed shivering on Tatiana's doorstep. She was still living with Tatiana, who was an absolute angel. Somehow she was able to deal firstly, with the angry hormonal pregnant Natasha and then the weepy new mother Natasha, who had no idea how to look after a baby. _

_She had found it strange at first living with Tatiana, being able to go out and do normal things like shopping or go to the cinema just because she wanted to not just because it was part of a mission. She had not even spared or fired a gun in all the time she had been there. Natasha had been introduced to the local community as Natalia, Tatiana's cousin's daughter whose husband was in the military and had been killed in action and whilst the neighbours all seemed very nice, Natasha tried to keep herself to herself, scared that someone would identify her has the infamous Black Widow._

_'Natalia there is someone here to see you' Tatiana said as she entered the nursery 'he looks very important'_

_'Swan Lake was always your favourite ballet' came a familiar voice from behind her._

_As Natasha turned around to face the man from her past she realised that she had subconsciously been humming main theme from Swan Lake to Lena, which was quite fitting as she had been a swan in the corps de Ballet of that particular production when she had bet Alexei, Lena's father. _

_'Boris' she said cool, clutching Lena tighter her chest, whilst wondering how he had found out her location._

_'Natalia' he replied nodding his head. 'And this is?' he asked, gesturing to the child she was holding._

_'My daughter' she replied shortly, willing Boris to leave._

_Unfortunately he took another step forward into the room. 'Well, well, well, of all the reasons for the Black Widow to disappear, I did not consider this. I assume it is Alexei's child or is it an accident because you weren't careful on one of your rage missions?'_

_'She's Alexei's' Natasha replied haughtily, not liking what he was implying. Though she used her body to further missions, she would never sleep around it the way he was insinuating, especially so soon after her husband's death, even she, the heartless killer, had some had morals._

_ 'Well this does complicate things' Boris muttered, starting to pace around the small nursery. 'The thing is Natalia, you just can't expect to be able to disappear and expect us to leave you alone. You were raised with a specific purpose, which was not to be a mother;_

_'Well maybe I've changed Boris' Natasha countered, not liking where this conversation was heading._

_'How touching' he replied 'but unfortunately for you, Natalia, you are a wanted woman. That little rampage you went on after Alexei's death, whilst very useful for us has put you on the most wanted list in several countries. I am told that the Americans in particular have put a very substantial bounty on your head. If you leave the Agency then we can no longer protect or cover for you, leaving you and I guess your daughter open for attack' Boris stated_

_'So you are saying that in order to protect Lena, I have to go back into the field?' she asked_

_'Yes' Boris said _

_'Do I have to come with you now?' Natasha asked_

_'Yes'_

_'But what about Lena?' _

_'I'm sure that this woman' he said gesturing to a scared looking Tatiana 'can look after your daughter'_

_Natasha looked over at Tatiana who was now nodding her head furiously, though Natasha could not decide whether it was out of fear or willingness to look after Lena._

_We have to go now' Boris stated firmly_

_Natasha turned around hoping to shield her goodbye from Boris' prying eyes. She held the now sleeping Lena close and smoothed down her red curls before placing a kiss to the top of her head. '__Ya vas lyublyu malyutka' she whispered before placing Lena down in the small cot in the corner. 'I'll see you soon' she said as she turned back around to face Tatiana and Boris who seemed to be having a conversation._

_'Are you ready?' Boris asked, somewhat impatiently_

_'Yes' Natasha replied steadily trying to remain in control of her emotions._

_'Good' Boris replied and he led Natasha out of the house leaving Tatiana and Lena behind._

_'You promise they are going to be alright' Natasha said earnestly as they climbed into the black car which pulled up in front of the house._

_'Yes, I reassured that woman you were staying with that I would put the house under maximum surveillance, so she could carry out her life as normal' Boris replied_

_'So what do you want be to do?' Natasha asked, slipping into Black Widow mode and pushing all her emotions aside._

_'Well we have a troublesome politician in Budapest we need you to get rid of and also a couple of people you could helpfully target on the way' Boris stated handing her a file as the car travelled towards the airport._

* * *

'Elena or to give you her full name Elena Alexeeva Shostakova, is Natasha's daughter' Clint stated as gasps of shock rang out across the control room 'though Natasha just calls her Lena, however I thought she was dead'

'What?' Tony exclaimed 'you mean to tell me that the cold hearted Black Widow has a child?'

'If it helps, she was also married' Clint added, deciding get that bomb shell out of the way.

'Agent what do you mean, you thought she was dead?' Director Fury asked, taken completely by surprise by the information that Agent Romanoff had a child, he was not used to not knowing everything. He had known she was married; the slight tan line around her fourth finger had given that away, but this was completely new to him.

'I think it would be easiest if I told you how Natasha and I met, Lena plays an important part in why she decided to defect.' Clint replied diplomatically

Everyone in the room either leant back in their seats, knowing that it would be a long story (Tony) or leant forward eagerly, wanting find out more (Steve).

'I met Natasha on a mission in Budapest. My mission was to kill her and hers was to kill a defecting Russian Politician who was under US protection. The sudden re-emergence of the Black Widow was quite surprising most people had thought that she had been killed, either by her own people or someone else and everyone wondered who had claimed the enormous bounty that was on her head. Anyway I managed to track her down to a party being held in the centre of the city, a high class affair and guess who was right in the middle of it, the Black Widow dancing with politician she was meant to be killing. Since they were spinning around on the ballroom, I was not able to get a clear shot at her and I retreated back.

Hours later I received an urgent message from Coulson. The Black Widow had struck and it was absolutely imperative for me to eliminate her. After scouring the city for a couple of days I finally found her in a toy shop, buying a teddy bear. I was stunned by the sight, this did not fit with image I had had of the ruthless Black Widow.

_'Have you come to kill me Agent Barton?'_ she asked putting down the bear and turning to face me.

'_How do you know who I am?' _I asked and she tapped the ear piece in her ear. Apparently she had managed to hack into our communications system and had over heard all my order to kill her.

She then engaged me in a fight which practically destroyed the shop, with both punches and bullets being exchanged. I finally gained the upper hand after she uncharacteristically tripped over her own feet and I was able to detach my bow and an arrow from by back and pointed it at her heart.

_'I'm out of practise'_ she whispered, before closing her eyes '_make it quick' _she whispered, taking out her ear piece as I had Coulson telling me to shoot her in mine. However I was curious as to why she had been in a toy shop of all places and I asked her why.

_'I thought that my daughter would like a bear' _she replied at that moment seeming almost human and I knew I could not kill her, not knowing that I would be depriving a child of their mother, not matter what crimes the mother had committed. Instead, against all what Coulson was telling me about her lying, I offered her a job at S.H.I.E.L.D. She said she would take it if we would protect her daughter. Even though Coulson was shouting in my ear that it was all a trap, we headed to Moscow to pick up Lena only to find the house where Lena was meant to be staying had been in a fire and the locals told us that there were no survivors.' Clint stopped and closed his eyes remembering how Natasha had practically broken down in front of his eyes on discovering that her daughter was dead and how she had clung to him.

'There was a transformation in Natasha after that, you remember how willing she was to join S.H.I.E.L.D, it was because the Agency she had worked for betrayed her and had not protected her daughter like they said they would. Haven't you noticed that she jumps at the opportunity to take out any target that belongs to the KGB or are from Russia? She wants revenge' Clint finsihed

'But Agent Barton, how did you know that she was not lying to you and that it wasn't a trap?' Fury asked.

'Well I'll admit that I was a bit foolish' Clint replied 'I trusted my instincts'

'I'm going to need more proof than just your instincts and Agent Romanoff's sob story tomake me believe that this is true' Fury replied.

'Have you got Natasha's security box?' Clint asked, referring to the box every agent hands over at the start of a mission, which contains their most precious belongings. The content of the box was completely confidential and it was morbidly what the agent wanted to be buried/cremated with, should they be killed in action.

'Yes' Fury replied walking over to the wall and typing in a key code which revealed a cupboard full of black boxes. This is Agent Romanoff's' he said handing it over to Clint 'though how you are going to get into it I don't know.

Clint just smirked as he typed the in key code, Lena's birth date, which opened up the box. He rummaged inside, shielding the contents of the private box from his teammates prying eyes, until be found what he was looking for, a locket buried under of pile of photos of him and Natasha mucking around off duty.

'Natasha used to wear this around her neck all the time on missions until that time when we were sent to Costa Rica and it was nearly stolen off her ' Clint explained holding it up as everyone, including Fury gathered around to see what was inside.

'I never knew that the Russian Ice Princess could actually smile' Tony remarked as he looked at the picture of an almost unrecognisable smiling Natasha Romanoff who was holding a small red haired baby.

'So what are we going to do?' Steve asked, reiterating the question he had asked before Clint told his story and feeling even more sympathy for the Russian red head, he knew all too well what it was like to lose someone you loved.

Clint quickly closed Natasha's security box whilst pocking her locket, knowing that she would probably need it soon.

'Unfortunately it seems Agent Rogers, that we cannot authorise a mission to rescue Agent Romanoff' Fury replied to all the avengers' astonishment. 'The Council will not allow us to'

Clint stood up angrily, they had to try and rescue Natasha, screw the stupid, screw S.H.I.E.L.D and screw Fury. He could tell from Natasha's voice in the recording that she trusted him to come and help get her and her daughter out of the compound. They were partners and although Natasha felt that she had repaid her debt to him, by saving him from Loki, Clint knew he owed her a debt for saving him from himself.

* * *

**A HUGE thank you to eveyone who reviewed the last chapter. It made me very happy this morning to see my inbox full of emails saying people had reviewed/favourited/alerted this story and it spurred me on to complete this chapter!**

**I'm sorry it was a bit of a filler chapter but the next one should be a bit more interesting!  
**

**:)**

_Translations_**  
**

___lyubimaya - beloved/darling/sweet one_

_Ya vas lyublyu malyutka - I love you little one  
_

_(all translations are from google, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!)  
_


	7. Part 7

'Why won't the Council authorise a S.H.I.E.L.D rescue mission?' Tony asked Director Fury as Clint continued to glare at the eye patch wearing man 'Agent Romanoff is one of your best assets'

'She might be one of the best agents we have, but she also has a less than perfect past. The Council is not willing to risk the capture of more agents to rescue a woman who for the first part of her life targeted American agents' Fury replied.

'You can't be serious!' the normally quiet Bruce exclaimed 'but that was years ago'

'The USA was the country who put the biggest bounty on Miss Romanoff's head and many of the council members argued furiously against her being given a pardon and working for S.H.I.E.L.D'

'But that is all in the past' Clint stated angrily 'and Natasha has been working almost 24/7 for the past five years to try and clean all the red off her ledger, surely the Council can see that that she has put her life on the line working for S.H.I.E.L.D, to this day I still don't know how we got out of the battle against the Chitauri fleet in New York with only a couple of cuts and cruises'

'I know that Agent Barton and I promise you I argued Agent Romanoff's case, but I was over ruled' Fury replied.

'Just because S.H.I.E.L.D is not allowed to rescue Natasha, doesn't mean that the Avengers aren't?' Steve, who up until that moment had not added his contribution to the debate, 'I mean, aren't we independent from S.H.I.E.L.D?'

'Well you are technically under S.H.I.E.L.D supervision but for all intents and purposes you are separate' Fury stated with a cunning look in his one visible eye.

* * *

Natasha looked up as for the second time in a couple of days Irina walked through her cell door, though this time instead of carrying kasha, she was wrinkling her nose up at it, as she noticed the Russian porridge spilt across the floor.

'The guard might have had a bit of an accident' Natasha stated sheepishly as the blonde haired fifteen year old looked at her quizzically.

'I gathered that much' Irina replied 'from the fact that he is lying on the ground outside, slightly disorientated.'

'So what brings you here today?' Natasha asked curiously 'I haven't got any more of my life story to tell you'

'Well I was wondering...well the thing is...' Irina hesitated

'Yes?'

'Well since Boris has gone to Moscow, we have no one to train us and I was wondering if you could help us?' Irina asked, ringing her hands nervously

Natasha's first reaction was so say no. When she had first joined S.H.I.E.L.D and had shown off her skills she had many requests to teach other agents. However she adimately refused to do so, since they were her moves and the survival instincts within her told her not to teach anyone. But then as she weighted up the pros and cons of helping Irina, she realised that if she helped them train she would be able to assess how well Boris was actually teaching them, especially since it seemed he was not teaching them much else.

'Yes' Natasha replied standing up. If these girls were going to be trust out into the mercy of the world using her name and bearing her likeness then they were going to need all the help they could get.

'Miss, the prisoner must not leave the room' the guard who was lying on the ground outside the cell slurred as Irina and Natasha walked out of the room. Irina just kicked him hard in the head, knocking him out for the second time that day.

'I've always wanted to do that' she muttered as they walked through the corridors to the training room. 'I don't know where Boris finds the guards but they are absolutely useless, especially when Boris is away and they crack open their hidden supply of vodka. I think that the only reason you were captured as that you were outnumbered.'

'Who looks after you when Boris is away?' Natasha asked curiously since they had no other handlers.

'Normally Felix, the head of the guards' Irina replied 'though he's a drunkard and after what happened last time, he's learn to stay away' she added with a smirk. 'I can look after myself, but some of the younger one's can't yet, so I have to look after them as well'

Natasha just grimaced. That part of the Black Widow Program hadn't changed. Dealing with the drunken guards' advances had prepared her for dealing with the sleazy businessmen she had to target.

Silence filled the training room as she and Irina entered and Natasha felt quite odd having fourteen pairs of eyes stare had her.

'What is she doing here?' came the voice of one of the older girls in the group 'she's the enemy'

'Oh hush Vera' Irina replied 'Ms Romanova's here to help us. Don't you want to know how she was to fight so well? If you have any problems, you can always go back to your dormitory'

That shut up Vera, who stayed were she was, though an angry scowl appeared on her face, she loathed Irina showing her up.

'Right, why don't you all pair up so I can assess what you can do so I know what I can work on with each of you' Natasha ordered. 'Sparing only, I don't want to deal with serious injuries'. She watched as the girls formed pairs and began to fight each other. She walked down the line, noting that that with each of them, their footwork was slow and shabby and that they tended to lose focus easily. When she reached the end of the line she noticed another thing about the compound which had not changed, the red haired girl whom no one wanted to fight.

'Why don't you show me what you can do?' she suggested to Elena kindly.

The small red haired girl looked up from watching all the other sparing partners, surprised that Natasha was addressing her. 'I'm too little, you'll win' she replied pessimistically.

'Well why don't you use your smallness to your advantage?' Natasha suggested couching down so she was at her daughter's level.

'How?' Elena asked

'Well you can get around your opponent easily' she stated. 'If you are quick and always on your toes they won't be able to catch you and if they can't catch you then they can't hurt you. Yes that's right' she said as Elena followed her instructions and began to bob on the balls of her small feet. 'You're young which means that you tend to be more flexible' Natasha then stated 'so you can easily to stuff like this' she said before demonstrating a high kick 'so you can reach your taller opponents'

'But I can't do that!' Elena exclaimed.

'Yes you can' Natasha in what she hoped was an encouraging voice. She did not know how to interact with her daughter, the daughter who seemed to have no idea who she was, but she guessed that this could, in its own weird way, count as mother-daughter bonding. She guided Elena's small leg high into the air. 'See you can do it! All you have to do now is kick'

'But that's so easy!' Elena exclaimed getting first time

'Yes and your opponents will not be expecting it' Natasha replied. 'Now why don't you add it onto a series of moves you already know' she suggested before demonstrating what she meant by doing a series of basic kicks and punches, things she had been taught when she was Elena's age, before ending with a high kick. 'Now it's your turn' she said turning back to Elena, who was watching her in amazement

'I could never do that' Elena stated sadly

'The first thing to know as a fighter is never show that you are scared, never show-'

'-Any signs of weakness' Elena finished, repeating a statement Boris had drummed into her head

'And the second thing is to relax and let the movements flow. A fight is like a dance' Natasha stated, before guiding the six year old through the fighting movements, whilst humming a familiar tune under her breath so they moved in time with each other. 'I have to go and see what everyone else is doing, but you just keep practising that' she said as Elena began to get the hang of it. Elena just nodded as her face screwed up in concentration as she continued to practise.

Natasha was half way down the line, helping coach two ten year olds, Nadya and Elizavetta how to work on their accuracy when she heard a disturbance.

'Look at Lenochka' came Vera's voice approaching Elena who was practising diligently in the corner 'she thinks she can fight'

'Don't call me little!' Elena replied fiercely, glare at the older girl. 'I can fight' she stated defiantly 'I could beat you'

'I would like to see you try' Vera re replied with a smirk walking towards the small girl.

Natasha was torn between breaking the fight up before it started and letting them get on with it. Vera seemed like a nasty piece of work who needed to be taken down a couple of pegs. She was scared for Elena but she knew that the small red haired girl had the ability to beat Vera; after all she was the Black Widow's daughter.

Vera's confident smirk turned to a look of shock as she small six year old dashed around her, dodging her punches whilst making some of her own. It was obvious that Elena had taken Natasha's words to heart as her face showed no signs of fear bouncing on the balls of her feet as Vera got more and more frustrated. Natasha just shook her head, the older girl was losing her focus in her desire to beat the younger girl and it was costing her the fight. With one final high kick, which both took the spectators and Vera by surprise, Elena had her opponent lying slightly disorientated on the floor.

'I win' red head girl remarked triumphantly, whilst panting slightly, before helping the now murderous looking Vera up.

'Remember what I told Irina when we fought the other day' Natasha said to Vera before she could attack the other girl again 'you should never underestimate your opponent'

'Did you see me, I did it!' Elena exclaimed happily

'You were very good' Natasha replied, trying to mask her true feelings. She wanted to give into her motherly instincts and give Elena a big hug to show how proud she was of her, but she knew she couldn't, not when Elena did not know who she was. 'You mustn't get complacent' she warned before returning assess the older girls in the group.

After several hours in the training room, in which most of the girls had improved a considerable amount a loud bell rang and she looked at Irina, who she was currently fighting, quizzically.

'That's the bell for dinner' Irina answered. 'We have to go, otherwise cook will get angry. Thank you for helping us'

'No problem' Natasha replied as the girls filed out past her.

Elena was the last one out of the room. 'Will you have dinner with us?' she asked.

'No, I need to get back to my cell before the guard regains consciousness' Natasha replied.

'What was that tune you were humming earlier?' Elena suddenly asked 'it's just it was really familiar'

'It was from Swan Lake' Natasha replied 'the ballet by Tchaikovsky' she elaborated, as Elena looked up at her blankly.

'Oh' Elena replied 'I've never been to the ballet, so I don't know where I've heard it before, maybe one of the guards whistled it or something' she suggested before walking out of the training room racing after the rest of the girls.

_You know it because I used to hum it to you as I rocked you to sleep_, Natasha thought sadly as she closed the training room door behind her and headed back towards her cell.

* * *

'So birdman, how does it feel to love married woman?' Tony asked Clint teasingly, as they planned their mission to rescue Natasha. Fury had provided them with coordinates, but they needed to do the rest.

'Firstly, for the last time, I'm not in love with Natasha and secondly, she's not married anymore' Clint replied, trying to keep his voice steady. 'Why would she be called the Black Widow, if she wasn't one?'

'So did she kill him, like the spider does?' Tony asked, fishing for more information

'And do you know his name?' Steve asked from under a pile of maps

'His name was Alexei Shostakov and no, she didn't kill him. He was a fighter jet test pilot and the plane he was testing malfunctioned' Clint replied

'Do-'

'I don't know anymore!' Clint shouted as Tony tried to ask him another question. 'You know how Natasha is about her past, there is only so you can get out of her before she clams up and she only really speaks about her past after having several shots of vodka'

'Your additions to your suit are finished Mr Stark' JARVIS announced referring to the adaptations Tony had had to make to his suit so it would not freeze up in the cold Siberian climate.

'Well I guess that means that we are ready' Steve stated as Bruce collected up all the data. 'Avengers assemble, let's suit up!'

* * *

**As always, thank you for your reviews and I hope you liked this chapter!**

**The next one is going to be action packed as Boris returns with a surprise...**

**:)**

* * *

_Translation_**  
**

_Lenochka - __Little Lena  
_

_(all translations are from google, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!)  
_


	8. Part 8

'I don't know if you got the last message I sent you, but it has been two days and if you are going to come, you need to come soon' Natasha said urgently into the microphone in the communications room. 'The situation is worse than I thought it could possibly be and I've worked out why I have not been killed yet. Boris is training the girls to be Black Widows, but he isn't giving them enough training. He has made several masks of my face, so when they are old enough he is going to sell them off the highest bidder. He is going to exploit them using my name and likeness, leading them like lambs to the slaughter whilst he gets richer and richer-'

'I see that you have worked it all out' came a voice from behind her. Natasha whipped around, the message still recording, to face Boris who was leaning against the door frame, pointing a gun right at her.

'Well your absence, gave me an opportunity to explore the compound, I wasn't going to let one measly guard stop me from having a look round' Natasha replied coolly, whilst reaching for the knife which she had in her pocket. 'You are a monster' she stated fiercely

'I believe you've already called me that' he replied twirling his gun around his finger lazily. 'You know your friends aren't going to be able to rescue you in time' he stated evilly 'the KGB are coming to destroy this compound very soon and everything in it'

'And you are going to let them?' Natasha asked incredulously. 'How did they find out about this place, I thought you said that they did not know that you had restarted the Black Widow Program?'

'The thing is Natalia that those girls are just replaceable, all I need to do is take the masks of your face and start again' Boris said simply. 'You work for S.H.I.E.L.D, don't you Natalia?'

Natasha just nodded, wondering how Boris knew that and where he was going with that information.

'Well a couple of days ago someone from S.H.I.E.L.D, I think his name was something like Fury, contacted the KGB saying that they had received reports that the Black Widow Program has been restarted. The KGB was quick to deny any knowledge their involvement and vowed to find out what was happening and they called me to Moscow. After they had conducted their interview' and he gave her a twisted smile and gestured to his bruised jaw 'they said that they wanted to monitor the project from now on. However as I was leaving, my informant inside the KGB told me of how they were planning to come and destroy this place and apparently they were very happy at the fact that I had the original Black Widow here as well. It seems that as this country moves further into the 21st century it wants to wipe all traces of its unsavoury past out, which I'm afraid includes you, Natalia'

Natasha just stood there in shock, trying to take in all that Boris had been telling her. She could not believe that Fury had not trusted her and her instincts and had contacted the Russian Secret service alerting them to the fact that this compound was still running and now the KGB were coming to destroy the compound.

'It hurts being betrayed, doesn't it Natalia?' Boris said smirking 'I must dash before they come along and blow up plane' and he walked away laughing, leaving Natasha rooted to the spot. 'vozmozhno, ya rebenok' she whispered into the microphone before shutting the computer down, hoping somewhere Clint would understand and know what she meant.

* * *

'Sir there is an incoming message forwarded from S.H.I.E.L.D' announced JARVIS as the Avengers flew in one of Tony's jets through the air, to rescue Natasha.

'Well play it' Tony ordered in his seat next to Pepper who was flying the plane. Tony had not wanted her to be involved, but could not argue against her, when she pointed out that they had no one to fly them out there or act as back up, since S.H.I.E.L.D was not involved in the mission.

_'I don't know if you got the last message I sent you, but it has been two days and if you are going to come, you need to come soon...' _came Natasha's voice filtering through the speakers.

The team listened intently as the message continued to play.

'I can't believe Fury' Steve whispered as Boris revealed what the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D had done.

'Natasha is right, that man is a monster, using those girls like that' Bruce stated, shaking his head sadly, wondering why there were people like Boris in world.

'Well we are almost there' Pepper announced

'I've managed to latch on to where on the compound this message is being sent from' Tony said 'and I guess Natasha is around there'

_'Vozmozhno, ya rebenok'_ Natasha said finally before the message cut off

'What did she just say?' Steve asked, not understanding one word of the Russian. Clint just smiled, that message was obviously for him.

'That must be Boris' plane' Pepper exclaimed, cutting across Clint's reply and pointing towards a small plane taking off in the distance.

'Right then' Tony said standing up in his iron man suit 'the Captain and I will go after Boris, whilst the Legolas can play the hero and swoop down to save the damsel in distress. Dr Banner, you and Pepper will keep an eye on what is happening from the sky; let us know when you see the KGB coming or any other threats. We might need you for medical assistance or if it gets really bad, the other guy might have to make an appearance. Any questions?' he asked

'Just one' Steve said. 'Boris is on a plane and you in your suit may be able to fly, but I can't'

'Dr Banner and I have been working on these' Tony announced and pulled out a jet pack and throwing it at Steve, who eyed it suspiciously.

'It's going to be alright' Bruce said reassuringly to Clint, as the assassin stood by the plane's open hatch ready to jump and the doctor handed him his trusty bow and quiver of arrows. 'Natasha might want to have these as well' he remarked before handing a gun and some of the Black Widow's Widow Bites.

'Right Clint we're flying directly over where the message was sent from so you need to jump now' Pepper's voice came over the jet's speakers.

Making sure that he had everything, including his parachute strapped firmly to his back, Clint jumped out of the plane.

* * *

Natasha knew that she should move, that she should run before the KGB came, but she couldn't, she was still in shock from what Boris had revealed. If she were to run, where would she go? She was trapped in the mild of a snowy Siberian wilderness, the KGB wanted her dead and the Council and S.H.I.E.L.D, obviously did not think that she was worth saving.

More morbid thoughts entered her mind. If this was the place where she was going to die then it was quite fitting that it was in the place where it all began and by the people who turned her into what she was. She knew where she would go, to the dormitories so she could try and find Elena, her daughter.

A crash broke through her pessimistic musings and she ran out of the communications room into the deserted hallway

'Bozhe moi' she whispered as a figure came crashing through the snow covered skylight and she gripped her knife, the only weapon she had on her, tightly.

'I really should stop going through windows' the figure said as he brushed bits of snow and glass off his uniform.

'Clint!' Natasha exclaimed before uncharacteristically throwing herself at him, she was so happy to see him

'Nice to see you too Nat' Clint replied wrapping his arms around her, whilst slightly dazed by her welcome.

'I can't believe you are here!' she said as she disentangled himself from him.

'Well you knew I would come' he stated

'Yes, but it took you long enough' she replied, her full lips curving upwards into a teasing smile.

'Hey, I thought you might want these' Clint said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve a gun and some of her Widow's Bite's which Natasha grabbed eagerly 'and I thought you might want this' he added, before pulling out her locket.

'But how?' she asked in amazement, as she fingered the gold locket carefully, it was meant to be safely locked away in her security box, not here in his hand.

'They wanted proof' he answered before clasping it around her neck as she nodded her head in understanding.

_'Hawkeye, have you made contact with the Widow?' _ Came the voice of Bruce Banner suddenly through his communicator

'Yes, she's standing right next to me' Clint replied whilst handing Natasha a communicator, which she immediately placed in her ear.

'This is the Widow' she stated

'Well hello Natasha' came the voice of Tony Stark 'It's nice to hear your voice again. I can't believe you've kept so many secrets from us Agent Romanoff'

'Well I-'

Natasha, before she was able to explain herself, was cut off by Bruce. 'Iron man, Cap, how are you doing?' he asked

'We're just about to enter Boris' plane' the Captain replied

'Anything you would like us to do to the bastard, Natasha?' Tony added

'Just keep him alive until I can kill him myself' the red haired assassin replied, clenching her fists. She wanted to make that man pay for all he had done and all he had been going to do.

'Hawk, Widow I can see planes coming in on the horizon, you need to get out of the compound quickly!' exclaimed Bruce as he watched as a plane swooped over the compound about to drop a bomb. It was taking all of his control to stop the other guy from making an appearance.

'We've got to set the girls out of here! We need to get to Elena' Natasha shouted over the din caused by the incoming plane.

Then there was suddenly a loud bang which sent shock wave reverberating around the building causing it to shake, and Natasha and Clint to lose their balance and fall to the hard concrete floor.

'A building on the left side of the compound has been hit' Bruce announced through their communicators 'are you two alright?'

'Yeah' Clint replied as he helped his partner to her feet.

'They've hit the dormitories' Natasha whispered before breaking out into a run, with Clint sprinting after her. She had to get to Elena, she had to make sure she was alright.

* * *

_Translation_**  
**

___Vozmozhno, ya rebenok_ - perhaps I am a child_  
_

_'Bozhe moi' - My God  
_

_(all translations are from google, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!)  
_


	9. Part 9

**A/N: Thank you for all your reviews (now over 30!) and to everyone who has added this story to their alter/favourites list. I really hope you like this chapter because it was an absolute pain to write! You know when you can envisage everything in your head, like a film, but find it so hard to put down in words? Well that's what it was like for me writing this chapter. Anyway, ramble over, on with the story...**

* * *

With a calculated swipe of his circular shield, Captain America knocked several of the oncoming guards out of his way, as he marched up the plane towards the cockpit. Tony, in his Iron Man suit, was keeping an eye on things from outside and was currently getting rid of the guards who were firing at him from within the plane.

When he finally he reached the cockpit door, Steve was greeted by the sight of the infamous Boris Yusupov lounging in a chair to one side reading a newspaper, whilst the pilot sat bolt upright in his seat right in front of him.

'Ah Captain America' Boris remarked coolly, peering up over the top of his newspaper. 'I must say, I wasn't expecting you to get here so quickly'

'Well it's not my fault that your guards are so incompetent' Steve replied advancing forward

* * *

'Is anyone there?' Natasha called out through all the dust as she and Clint neared the girl's dormitories. 'Elena, Elisavetta, Sasha, Nadya, Vera, Irina are you there, are you alright?' Natasha shouted as she climbed over another slab of concrete which was in her way, calling out some the girl's names she remembered from their session in the training room.

'Ms Romanova, is that you?' came a voice in Russian from behind the rubble at the end of the corridor.

'Yes it is Irina' Natasha quickly replied in the same language. 'Are you alright?'

'Yeah, just a couple of cuts and bruises, though Kira's ankle has been crushed.' Irina replied

'How many girls are with you?' Natasha asked horridly, praying that Elena was one of them. Clint came up behind her and began to try and shift the rubble

'There are seven of us all together' Irina replied 'Something hit the dormitory next door, there was a loud explosion and we were all thrown from our beds.'

'Can you get out?' Natasha asked

'I think so, if we can just shift a bit more of the rubble. I can see some light'

'Well stay right where you are and we're coming for you' Natasha replied as she helped Clint move the rubble which was blocking the way.

'Tash just breath, they're going to be alright' Clint said reassuringly, trying to keep his partner calm 'Lena is going to be fine.'

'But she could have been in the dormitory that was hit' she replied, running her hand through her red curls nervously, trying to focus on the task in hand.

'Hey, positive thoughts' Clint stated, reaching down and squeezing her hand comfortingly

'Irina, can you see anymore light?' Natasha asked once they had move several big slabs of concrete regaining control of her emotions.

'Yes, I think we could probably get through the gap you've created' Irina replied

'Let me just move one last piece of stone' Clint said to Irina in his rudimentary Russian 'and then you can send the first girl through'

'Ms Romanova, who's that?' Irina asked anxiously upon hearing the unfamiliar voice

'It's my partner Hawkeye' Natasha responded. 'He and my other team members have come to help rescue us'

'You team is not the one who was caused all of this?' Irina asked as she sent through the first girl, Xenia, through

'No' Natasha replied as she helped the small girl, who had been lifted out by Clint, over a large piece of rubble, before telling her to sit by the wall as they got the next girl out. 'It's the KGB bombing the compound not us'

'And where is Boris?' Irina asked, as the next girl was rescued from beneath the rubble.

'I think some of the other members of our team are dealing with him at the moment' Clint replied as the dust covered head of the next girl appeared in the hole.

* * *

'Umm Iron Man, we might have a bit of trouble' Steve Rogers announced through his communicator.

'What's the matter now?' Tony asked from his position outside of the plane. 'Do you need me to come on board and help kick the bastard's ass'

'No, I've dealt with him' Steve replied 'but I might have eliminated the pilot and I have no idea how to fly one of these things'

'Well just try and land it and I'll stop you from crashing' Tony replied exasperatedly, positioning himself under the plane, ready to guide it to the ground. He had forgotten that his fellow avenger had been frozen on ice for over 70 years and was still coming to grips with modern technology.

Steve quickly stepped over the bound, gagged and unconscious Boris and carefully placed his trusty, now slightly blood stained shield on the seat next to him, before sliding into the pilot's vacant seat. As he sat, staring at the controls, he got a sense of déjà vu. He had been in a position similar to this before, trying to fly an aircraft over lots of ice and snow, though this time he was determined not to crash and end up frozen on ice for another 70 years, or as Tony liked to put it, become a capsicle.

* * *

Natasha looked up from binding Kira's crushed ankle with a strip of cloth she had torn from her dirty cat suit. It was all she could do until they could get someone more professional to look at it. She let out a huge sigh of relief as she saw Elena's bright red curls, through the colour slightly muted by the covering of dust, being lifted up through the hole, quickly followed by the blonde haired Irina. She tried to mask her emotions but she was so happy that her little girl, her _lyubimaya_, was safe.

Clint carefully placed Elena down at the end of the row of girls who were sitting quietly next to the wall. Natasha looked at them closely; they were all, apart from Irina, the youngest girls in the compound, including Elena, who was clearly the youngest, the two identical dark haired twins, Sasha and Anya, up to ten year old Olga. They were all sitting there with their regulation dark blue uniform ripped, torn and covered with dust. Most of them were also sporting multiple cuts and bruises. They also all seemed to have the same bewildered expression, as they tried to take in all what was going on and it had not fully hit them that they were the only survivers of the KGB's bombing, everyone else, the remaining guards, the cook, and the other girls they had trained alongside, were dead.

_'What's happening Hawk, Widow?' came Bruce's calm voice through their communicators._

'We've rescued some of the girls, everyone else was killed by that direct hit to the neighbouring dormitory' Clint replied 'and we're now trying to work out what is the best way out. What's happening up there?' Clint asked as Natasha motioned for the girls to stand up, as they stared, almost suspiciously at the man who had helped them but was now speaking in a language they could not understand.

_'Everything is a bit quiet, but you'd better hurry because the KBG will probably return to complete the eradication of the compound. Oh, Tony and Steve have been able to take over and are just landing Boris' plane' _Bruce stated.

'And, what about Boris?' Clint asked for his partner who was, with uncharacteristic gentleness, helping Kira to her feet.

'Oh, he's currently unconscious, bound, gagged and waiting for the Black Widow to do her worst' Bruce replied with a chuckle, knowing that Boris was not going to be able survive the wrath of Natasha.

'Clint I need you to help Kira' Natasha stated, gesturing to the small girl who was limping.

Clint quickly walked up the girl and with a reassuring smile, gently picked her up and placed her on his back.

'The quickest way out of here would be the back way out past the kitchens?' she asked turning to Irina who nodded

_'Widow, the fence around the edge of the compound near where you are currently is down, if that helps' _Pepper stated through Natasha's communicator.

'It does help' Natasha replied before turning to the girls. 'We need to get out of here quickly before the next round of bombing comes' she told the girls in rapid Russian. 'You need to run like you have never run before, this is not one of your training exercises, this is a life and death situation.' The girl's nodded obediently before following Natasha down the corridor, with Clint, carrying Kira, taking up the rear.

* * *

'Tony and Steve have just landed' Bruce reported to Pepper, from next to her in the cockpit of Tony's private jet.

'What's that in the distance?' Pepper asked Bruce spotting black objects on the horizon.

'Widow, Hawk, you might have to hurry, the KGB were fast than we thought and are incoming' Bruce announced through the communicators hurriedly. He did not like the look of the planes which had appeared, several more than the first time around and not for the first time that day he was grateful that Tony's jet employed the same technology as the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier and so was currently invisible.

'_We're going as fast as we can, but there is a lot of rubble blocking our path'_ came Natasha's reply followed by some undecipherable Russian.

'_Can you do anything to stop them?' _ Clint asked breathlessly '_Distract them somehow? We just need a bit more time, according to both Irina and Natasha, we're nearly out._

'Like what?' Bruce asked

'_Can't you Hulk out or something?' _Clint replied

Bruce sighed and took a deep breath before standing up and moving away from the console and Pepper who was still piloting the plane. He walked over to the where Pepper could open the hatch in the floor of the plane. He stood there, thinking about all the horrible things Boris had done to both Natasha and the girls and what the KGB were doing to do, letting the rage wash over him to induce the appearance of the other guy. Just as he was about the fully turn green, Pepper with incredible timing, opened the hatch, causing him to fall to the snowy ground. Being with the avengers meant that he had learnt how to gain more control over the other guy and the Hulk turned his sight to the planes which were swooping in over head. It was time to smash.

* * *

Natasha could see that they were almost there. The wall at the end of the corridor had been blown down so she could see out into the open and what must be Boris' plane, landed by Steve and Tony right in the distance; however she could also hear the unmistakable roar of plane engines overhead. 'Run' she shouted grabbing the hands of the two of the girls nearest her and sprinting out into the snow. Both Irina and Clint, who already had a child on his back, followed her example.

There was a loud series of bangs, the ground shook and she could feel the heat of what must have been flames encroaching on her. She ran and ran across the snowy ground practically pulling the two girls along with her, so they could all get as far away from the compound as possible, before the next bomb fell.

.

BANG!

.

'_Widow, Hawk, is everything alright, are you both ok?'_

_'Widow, Hawk, come in, Widow, Hawk are you receiving me?'_


	10. Part 10

Pepper landed Tony's private jet in the snow next to Boris plane, which Steve and Tony had just successfully landed. From the cockpit she could see a green blob on the horizon, which she assumed must he Dr Banner in his Hulk form, in amongst black dots, which she assumed must be the KGB planes. The Hulk was meant to be distracting them, so Clint, Natasha and the girls they had rescued, had enough time to get out of the compound before they finished destroying it, but it seemed that the KGB planes were getting closer.

BANG

Pepper jumped as the first bomb landed and she silently prayed that they were alright

BANG

BANG

More bombs landed.

'Widow, Hawk is everything alright, are you both ok?' she asked, through her communicator 'Widow, Hawk, come in, Widow, Hawk are you receiving me?'

There was nothing but static as the two agents failed to respond. The strawberry blonde quickly grabbed her warm coat, told JARVIS to watch over everything, including Boris Yusupov who was still unconscious as she ran out, across the snow towards the compound, quickly followed by the rest of the Avengers.

* * *

'Tash...Tasha...Natasha...NATALIA!'

Natasha blearily opened her eyes to find that she was lying on her front on the cold snow. 'Clint' she mumbled rolling over to face her partner, who was standing over her with an anxious look on his face.

'God, I thought you were gone for a second there Tash' Clint replied.

'Is everyone else ok?' she asked as he helped up to slowly stand up. 'Are you hurt?'

'Nothing that a nice bath and a long sleep can't solve' Clint replied, reaching down to help his partner up.

Natasha allowed Clint to wrap an arm around her waist and help her walk through the snow; she could see her fellow Avengers helping up the girls who had, like her, been thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion.

Elena?

Where was Elena?

She looked around but could see no sign of her small red haired daughter. Then she spotted Bruce, who had obviously changed back (Tony had been able to create trousers which were not destroyed by the Hulk) , bending over a small figure lying in the snow. Natasha detached herself from Clint and ran towards the body, throwing herself down on her knees next to Lena. She quickly pulled her daughter's cold, pale, unconscious body onto her lap and wrapping her arms around Elena, trying to protect her from the cold winter wind. Elena wasn't dead; she could see her small chest jut rising and falling and she had a pulse, though it was quite weak.

'Bruce, why isn't she waking up?' she asked half hysterically 'why won't she open her eyes?'

Bruce looked at his teammate who had not seen for several days and sighed, not knowing what to tell her. The normal poker faced Agent Romanoff he could deal with, but this hysterical mother Natasha, he could not. 'Natasha she's going to be alright' he stated as calmly as he could, hoping that Clint would come back soon. He knew that the archer was the only one who could truely deal with the Russian spy when she was in this state.

'What happened?' Natasha asked, the other girls seemed fine, so why was her Lena not ok.

'I'm sorry Ms Romanova' came a voice in Russian from behind Bruce.

Natasha looked up to see a pale faced Irina, so pale that with her white blonde hair she almost blended into the Siberian landscape, approaching her.

'I was running with Elena but with the force of that explosion, I let go of Elena's hand and because she's so little she went soaring through the air and...' Irina choked back a sob.

'S_pasibo_' Natasha stated reaching over to squeeze the young girl's hand 'thank you for getting her out' and she returned to stroking Elena's fiery red curls which were so like her own.

'Irina, why don't you head over to that plane' Bruce suggested in English 'I think some of my team might need some help sorting out the girls, do you think you could do that?'

Irina nodded understanding what he was saying and stood up slowly before walking towards the group which was surrounding the plane. How could she have missed the likeness between Elena and Ms Romanova?

* * *

'Clint, you've been more than enough help here' Pepper stated as she draped a blanket over the two sleeping twin girls before handing a steaming cup of hot chocolate to the blonde haired teenage girl who had just arrived. 'Go back to Natasha, she needs you' she said, pushing him out of the door and turning her attention back to the girls on the plane.

'Do you know if she's going to be alright Pep?' Tony asked, still in his Iron Man suit, glancing out across the snow, his eyes following Clint's path as he ran towards his partner.

* * *

Clint ran as fast as he could across the snow, but it was one of the worst terrains to run on and even in his extra grip S.H.I.E.L.D adapted boots, he was still sliding everywhere. 'We need to get her into the warm before we all get frostbite' he stated when he finally reached Elena, Natasha and Bruce and he handed over a blanket.

Natasha carefully wrapped her daughter up in light blue blanket Clint had provided, before lifting her up so she was cradling her in her arms, just like she used to do when she was a baby.

'Let me take her Tash' Clint whispered, gesturing for her to hand over the cocooned child she was holding.

'No' Natasha replied stubbornly, holding Elena closer.

'Come on guys', we need to get back to the plane' Bruce said and the group walked slowly back towards Tony's private jet, which was ready to take them back. Clint walked along supporting Natasha, who was carrying her child in her arms and although Elena was small her age, she still was a lot heavier than she was the last time Natasha held her. Now completely lacking the feeling in their hands and feet, they finally arrived at the plane.

'Come on open your eyes _lyubimaya' _Natasha whispered to her daughter, pressing a tender kiss to the top of her head as they settled her across a couple of the chairs in the warmth. '_Ya vas lyublyu malyutka, __moya Lenochka ' _

'_Mumiya?' _

Natasha looked down at her daughter on her lap. 'Yes I'm your Mother' she replied in Russian, pressing another kiss to her daughter's head, then to both her cheeks, button nose and any other part of her body that was not swaddled in blanket. Happy tears escaped from Natasha's eyes. She could not believe her daughter was awake; she was going to be ok!

'_Mumiya' _Elena repeated sleepily, reaching up to touch Natasha's red curls which were so like her own, before snuggling back into the warmth of the blanket wrapped around her.

'Natasha I don't want to disturb you but what would you like us to do with Boris?' Steve asked, poking his head into the cabin of the plane. 'It's just we've got him tied up outside and he's awake. Do you want to take him back with us and you can deal when you are ready?'

'No, I can deal with him now' Natasha replied, shifting her daughter's sleeping body off her lap and standing up. 'Why should we take unwanted baggage back with us?'

Steve just stared at the red haired woman in front of him in amazement. Just minutes ago she was crying with happiness as her long lost daughter and now she was standing up holding her gun, with fierce determination in her eyes. 'Ok' was all he said as he led Natasha back outside to where the rest of the Avengers, apart from Bruce who was looking after the girls, were standing guard around the prisoner.

As the cold air hit the wet tear tracks on her face, Natasha furiously wiped her eyes. She was the Black Widow and she would not show any signs of weakness, especially not in front of the enemy.

'We saved him for you' Tony stated 'make the bastard pay'

'Don't worry, I will' Natasha replied, a ruthless smile appearing on her face as she fingered her gun, thinking of all the ways she could kill Boris. 'Hello Boris' she stated sweetly 'surprised to see me still alive?'

The gagged man just glared at her

'Well you know I'm a survivor, now what to do with you?' she muttered to herself. 'Oh how I have envisaged doing this to you over the years' she stated before kicking him hard in the groin, causing Boris to squeal and hiss in pain. She was sure that if he was not gagged he'd be shouting out some very colourful Russian curses at her. Natasha completely immersed herself in the Black Widow's persona; she was a cold hearted killer and man in front of her needed to suffer for all he had done both to her and the girls. 'I could just shoot you in the head' she stated pacing back and forth, twirling her gun round one of her fingers 'but then that would give you an easy way out' and she suddenly shot him in the leg, taking Boris completely by surprise.

Natasha laughed as he former mentor/tormentor howled with pain. 'That was for Tatiana' she whispered 'who you heartlessly killed just so you could get your hands on my daughter. Then she shot him in the right hand side of his chest 'that's for girls, both the ones I've rescued, but also for the ones who did not make it'. As blood seeped out of his wounds she shot him right in the middle of the heart 'and that is for Elena' she whispered. Then she turned her back on the now dead Boris to face the Avengers, who had been standing behind her, silently supporting her throughout the confrontation. 'It's done' she state quietly before collapsing, into Clint's open arms from sheer exhaustion, the adrenaline she had been running on finally running out.

Clint carefully picked up his partner and carried her onto the plane. When he had gentle positioned her in the seat next to him, with her head resting on his lap, he placed a gentle kiss to the top of Natasha's head, before closing his own eyes. It had been a long day, an even longer week but he was glad that the ordeal was finally over. However, as Tony's private jet took off and he drifted off, he knew that there were several more challenges to come.

* * *

**A/N: and that's the first half of this story over! But don't worry, there is more to come! I have more Natasha and Elena interaction planned andnot to mention much more Clintasha/blackhawk, whatever you want to call it, moments.  
**

**I am so happy I was able to get this chapter out today and hopefully the next one will be up soon, however I'm now back at school, so the updates might not be as quick as they have been!  
**

**Thank you all so much for all your lovely reviews, I can't believe I am now nearing 40 reviews! Please review this chapter and let me know what you thought of it!  
**

**Thanks to everyone who is reading this story!  
**

**:)**

* * *

_Translations:_**  
**

___S__pasibo_ - thank you

___lyubimaya - beloved/darling/sweet one_

_Ya vas lyublyu malyutka, moya __Lenochka_ - I love you little one, my little Lena  


___Mumiya_ - Mummy  


___(all translations are from google, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!)_


	11. Part 11

**A/N: I am absolutely overwhelmed by the amazing response this story has receive and it has encouraged me to find time amongst doing my school work to write this chapter. I really appreciate your reviews, I love reading about what you think about the chapter or story in general so please keep them coming.**

**This chapter is for all you Clintasha fans, I hope you like it!**

**:)**

* * *

Natasha slowly opened her eyes and looked around. The room was dark, the only light coming from the window in the door opposite her bed and from the beeping machine next to her. She soon realised that she was lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip stuck in the back of her hand, in the infirmary on the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier, as she could hear and feel the gentle hum of the engines. Then she noticed a figure sitting in a chair next to her, with his eyes half closed and his feet propped up on the end of her hospital bed.

Clint

She looked at him closely in the semi darkness. He had dark rings under his eyes and an ugly cut running from behind his ear down his neck and other cuts appearing out of the top of his S.H.I.E.L.D standard issue grey top.

She opened her mouth to speak, but her mouth was completely dry and no sound came out. Instead she moved her aching legs to nudge his feet, which were resting on top of her white blankets

'Wha- oh Tasha you're up' he stated, jolting awake and noticing his partner's green eyes wide open in the darkness. He noticed that she was reaching out towards the water on her bedside cabinet. 'Here you go' he said handing a glass to her, which she drank readily.

'How long was I out for?' she asked finally 'the last thing I remember is shooting Boris.'

'That was just over three days ago' Clint replied, reaching out to hold Natasha's hand as she looked up at him with a shocked expression on her face. 'Well, you did have minor case of hypothermia, malnourishment, some cracked ribs, concussion and not to mention a whole other assortment of injuries'

'How are you?' she asked, squeezing his hand

'I'm fine, nothing take a couple of painkillers can't sort out' her partner replied.

'Have you been here the whole time?'

Clint nodded

'You stupid man! You should be in your room asleep resting!'

'I know, but I didn't want to leave you' Clint replied reaching out to stroke Natasha's cheek tenderly. 'The last time I left you, you were captured and I did not see for days and besides, I know you hate waking up alone'

'Thank you' Natasha whispered 'How is everyone else?'

'They are alright, worried about you though' Clint replied 'They've been in a couple of times, Pepper keeps on sending me food and Bruce is on the medical team monitoring the girls'

'The girls, Elena, I should be with her' Natasha exclaimed, beginning to sit up, with some difficulty in the bed.

'Relax Tash, before you do yourself anymore harm. The girls are all still out and Bruce told me that he wasn't expecting them to wake up until at least the morning. You should go back to sleep Tash'

Natasha sunk back into the pillows and closed her eyes. Her mind would not rest; there was too much going on. She had images of Boris leering at her, of her dancing with Alexei, baby Lena's bright blue eyes staring up at her, the explosion... 'I can't sleep' she whispered 'I keep on getting all these images in my head and this bed is about as comfy as the hard pallet I was subjected to back in the compound.'

'Well I know bed that is much comfier' Clint replied

'Can you help me get out of here?' Natasha asked

'Tash I'm not really sur-'

'Please Clint'

'Fine, but you can face the wrath of Dr Michaels in the morning' he answered placing an arm behind her back and helping her up.

'Pah, like I care, the bitch is scared of me ever since I threatened her when she would not let me see you after Guatemala' Natasha stated reaching down and pulling the IV out of her hand.

'Well come on them' Clint stated, wrapping his arm firmly around Natasha's waist and helping her walk out of the hospital room, towards his quarters.

Under normal circumstances Natasha would never let Clint help her walk along like he was currently doing, but it as dark, there was no one around and her legs were screaming out in protest every time she took a step. she had definitely pulled more than a couple of muscles and so for once she made a concession and showed some weaknesses

'Here we are' Clint announced as they rounded the corner and approached the door to Clint's room which they quickly entered.

'Your bed has not been slept in' Natasha noted as they entered the room.

'Well I already told you that I had been with you all the time' Clint stated. 'Maybe you should have a shower, that normally clears your head' Clint suggested

Natasha nodded. A nice hot shower was one of the only things which could rest her buzzing mind. She slowly stood up and made her way across Clint's room to his bathroom.

Clint lay on the bed after Natasha had gone to have a shower, thoughts of the past couple of days passing through his mind. The only other time he had been as scared as he was when she would not wake up when they reached the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier, after their flight back and had to be carried off on a stretcher by the medics, was when she had been shot in the stomach during what was meant to be a simple mission in Warsaw. Seeing her lying there motionless, almost as pale as the hospital sheets she was lying on, her normally bright hair, dull and lying limply around her head, was one of his worst memories. She looked so venerable, hooked up with all this wires to machines which were keeping her alive and he could not help her.

'Clint, can you help me' came Natasha's voice, almost a whisper, pulling out of his memories.

Clint leapt off the bed and headed to the bathroom. 'What do you need?' he asked standing next to the bath room door.

'Can you help me please' came Natasha's reply

'What? You want me to come in?'

'Please'

Clint slowly opened the bathroom door to find Natasha sitting at the bottom of the shower, tears running down her face mixing with the water which was coming out of the shower. Without a moment's hesitation, Clint stripped off his clothes and quickly entered the shower. 'Come on Tash' he said, helping her stand up 'let's get you all cleaned up' he stated, brushing her tears away.

Natasha just nodded as Clint reach up to grab some shampoo before starting to massage it into her red curls. It did not feel awkward being together naked and sharing a shower. It was nothing each other had not already seen before and it was a sort of post stressful mission ritual, as if standing under the spray of the water would wash all the hurt and all the crimes they had committed away. It was like after they stepped out of the shower, they were just Nat and Clint, no alias or code names, just themselves. Clint remembered how Natasha had led him into a giant bathroom on one of the floors of Stark tower, which had not been destroyed after the battle against Loki and had first piece by piece, painstakingly picked out all the bits of glass in his back before helping him into the shower, where they had both washed the blood and dirt from the day away.

'Thank you' Natasha said gratefully as he rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and picked up the shower gel. After squirting some onto his hands, he rubbed them together before starting to massage it into her shoulders, relaxing her tense, taut muscles under his fingers. He slowly worked his way down her back as Natasha pushed her hands against the wall in order to brace herself. She was losing herself under Clint's tender ministrations. 'Thank you' she whispered again turning to face her partner, her wet head pressing against his equally wet bare chest.

'No problem' Clint replied as the hot water continued to spray them and he placed a kiss to the top of her head. 'What you do without me?' he joked

'I'd still be in Russia' Natasha replied seriously, pressing a quick kiss to his lips, before shakily stepping out of the shower into the now steamed up bathroom and wrapping a towel around her, leaving Clint in the shower, wondering what she had just said.

* * *

'You take the bed, I'll be fine on the couch' Clint stated after they had dried off

'I still won't be able to sleep' Natasha replied, holding out her hand 'please stay with me'

'Are you sure?' Clint asked

Natasha, wearing one of Clint's shirts, nodded and lifted up the covers to allow Clint to crawl in next to her. 'I meant it you know' she stated as she uncharacteristically snuggled up next to him 'I would be still in Russia if you had not been sent to kill me. I'd probably be a lost vicious killer'

'But you're not'

'I know, thanks to you'

'Where's all this coming from Tash?' Clint asked

'I remembered the conversation I had with Irina back in the compound, after I didn't kill her.' Natasha replied 'She said that by me sparing her life gave her hope that she would not become a heartless killer and that she would not lose all compassion. I replied that five years ago she would've been dead. You changed me, you taught me how to feel again and I couldn't kill her because too much blood had already been spilt in that compound, which I was still trying to clean off my ledger and I couldn't kill in front of my daughter.'

'Well you changed me as well, don't forget that' Clint replied

'What am I going to do?' Natasha asked suddenly 'what am I going to do with Elena, I have no clue how to be a mother, how to look after a child and how can I go on missions for S.H.I.E.L.D if I have to look after a six year old. Will she like me, or will she hate me for leaving her behind' Natasha worried.

'You'll be fine' Clint replied, trying to reassure his partner and wrapping his arms around her. 'I'm sure you are a wonderful mother and I know that you would do anything for your daughter' he said remembering how distraught she had been when they had though that Elena was dead.

'I know that, it's just the practicalities of looking after a child. Elena's going to need stability and security after all she went through under Boris. You remember what I was like when I defected, how antisocial and suspicious I was of everybody, well she's going to be like me but worse'

'And we'll get through it together Tash, we're a team, you're my partner and I will always be there to help you' Clint stated earnestly

'You mean it?' Natasha asked moving her head to look up at him

'Yes' Clint promised, moving down and capturing her lips with his, hoping to convey that they were going to be alright. 'I love you' he whispered when they finally broke for air

'Love is for children' she replied, reciting the mantra which had been drummed into her as a child

'_Vozmozhno, ya rebenok' _Clint stated firmly, repeating what she had told him when she was waiting to be rescued

_'Vozmozhno, ya rebenok' _Natasha mumbled in agreement, before sighing contentedly into Clint's chest and falling into a dreamless sleep. However it took longer for Clint to drift off as he wondered what the following days would bring.

* * *

_Translations:_**  
**

___Vozmozhno, ya rebenok' - perhaps I am a child_  


___(all translations are from google, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!)_


	12. Part 12

Sunlight filtered through the curtains causing Clint to roll over to block out the light, well he tried to roll over, but found he had a certain sleeping redhead curled up at his side. Clint gently, as not to wake her, brushed the red curls off her face and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. When Natasha was asleep, truly asleep, not just faking, or half asleep waiting for an attack, all her masks dropped and she looked the most peaceful. Waking up with Natasha next to him gave him a reassuring sense of familiarity. In the early days of their partnership it was how they built up their trust in each other, Clint would come to her every time she had a nightmare about her time in the Red Room or about Lena and eventually she started to come to him when he had his nightmares about his time as a sniper in Afghanistan. It had only been after the incident with Loki and the nightmares that followed, that Natasha stopped even pretending to go to sleep in the room Stark had assigned to her, in the new Avenger's Tower and just stayed in his room, helping him to get through the night.

There was a knock on the door, which caused Clint to sit bolt upright, waking up Natasha in the process.

'Urgh' she mumbled, before rolling over and burying herself under the covers.

Clint just chuckled at his partner's actions before getting out of bed, throwing on some clothes and walking over to the door to find out what he person who was still knocking wanted – it better not be Stark.

'What do you want? Oh Agent Hill' he remarked noticing that it was a brunette haired agent, rather than a multimillionaire, playboy, philanthropist, knocking on his door.

'Agent Barton, have you seen Agent Romanoff?' she asked. 'She's not in the infirmary or in her room. It's just that the girls are waking up soon and we thought that it might be advisable to have her on hand, in case the girls react badly to their new environment. Oh' she remarked, noticing the red-haired agent, sitting up on the bed behind Clint, having heard her name being mentioned

'I'll be out in five minutes' Natasha stated to the now baffled agent.

* * *

Exactly five minutes on the dot, Agent Maria Hill was greeted by the sight of Agents Barton and Romanoff, emerging from the former's room, acting like nothing was odd. Maria tried to mask her look of bemusement at the fact that just a couple of minutes ago these two agents had been sharing the same bed (which was technically against S.H.I.E.L.D regulations) and now they were standing next to each other, wearing what Maria liked to call their 'business' faces, showing no emotions. 'Right, if you would follow me' she stated leading them through the corridors towards where the girls were being held.

'Where's Fury?' Natasha asked as they walked at a briskly, ignoring the curious looks her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D agents were giving her. Just over four days ago they had seen a battered Agent Barton rush into the infirmary with an unconscious, pale, Agent Romanoff cradled in his arms and now she was up walking around like she hadn't been out for three days. Clint chuckled at their curious faces, knowing that they were wondering if Natasha had super human healing powers and whilst the scientists during her time in the Black Widow Program had increased her immune system, she was still normal. The curious agents just didn't know that the best way for Natasha to heal was to have a good night's sleep.

'He's not at Headquarters at the moment' Hill replied striding ahead.

'Oh' was Natasha's only reply, though Clint saw an angry look pass across his partner's face. He knew that she wanted to have some words with Director Fury.

'So what is going to happen to the girls?' Clint asked as they neared the infirmary.

'Well with the younger ones, we've managed to secure them places with some S.H.I.E.L.D trusted families, who should be able to help them readjust to life here in America and the older one-'

'Irina' Natasha interjected

'Yes, well we're giving her a choice'

'And what about Elena?' Clint asked for his partner

'Elena?' Agent Hill asked, wondering which one of the six younger girls that was

'The youngest one, the one with bright red hair' Clint explained

'She'll be going with the other girls' Hill replied, wondering why Agent Romanoff had suddenly stopped dead in her tracks as they walked the through the door to the Infirmary

'She can't,she's my daughter' Agent Hill heard Agent Romanoff whisper just before they were greeted by one of the S.H.I.E.L.D doctors.

'Ah, Agent Romanoff, I'm so glad to see you're here, we need your help. Waking up the girls has proved as simple as expected.'

'How come?' Natasha asked as the bald haired doctor led her into one of the rooms containing two girls.

'Agent Romanoff, out of bed without permission I see' came the patronising tone of Doctor Michaels, who clashed with Natasha frequently, walking up to them.

'Well I heard you need my help' Natasha replied coolly.

'Well, when we wake the girls up, they start screaming, kicking and thrashing around whilst saying things we just can't understand' the Doctor replied 'so we have to sedate them again, which is not really ideal.

'Well are you surprised?' Natasha asked, watching as the team of Doctors began to wake up the small girl to the left side of the room. 'You remember what I was like when I first came in?'

'Yes, but you weren't as vocal' Dr Michaels responded as the girl emitted an ear splitting scream.

'If you had been prodded, poked, jabbed and experimented on all your life, you would be afraid of doctors, needles and people wearing white lab coats in general, as well' Natasha stated before running towards the girl, hoping to calm her down, before the doctors had to sedate her, before she caused herself any harm.

As Natasha neared the hospital bed, leaving her partner to be berated by Dr Michaels for helping her escape the clutches of the infirmary last night, she realised that the girl in the bed was one of the identical twins so she hastily looked to see if she was the one with a birthmark on the right side of her neck, the only way to tell them apart.

'Anya, Anya' she whispered after working out who the brithmark-less twin was. 'Anya, these people aren't here to hurt you, they are here to help you. You're are safe now' she stated gently in Russian, placing a calming hand on the girl's shoulder '_bezopasnyi'_

_'Bezopasnyi?' _Anya repeated, calming down. 'Ms Romanova is that you, where am I?' she asked looking up at the red haired woman who was standing over her.

'Yes it's me Anya' Natasha replied. 'You're in America, in the headquarters for the Agency I work for'

'Where's Sasha?' the small girl asked, sitting up and looking around for her twin.

'Where's this girl's twin?' Natasha asked Dr Michaels quickly 'The dark haired girl, with an obvious birthmark on her neck' she elaborated as the doctor looked at her blankly.

'She's next door, with the child with the broken ankle'

'Kira' Clint supplied, remembering the girl he had had to carry out on his back

'She's fine, she's next door' Natasha repeated, reassuring Anya in Russian.

'What is going to happen to us now?' Anya asked Natasha as the doctors began to check her over

'You're going to go somewhere safe, somewhere you can be normal and have a childhood' Natasha replied, holding the small girl's hand.

'Is Sasha going to go with me?'

'Yes' Natasha replied firmly, making a mental note to tell Agent Hill not to split the twins up

'And I don't have to fight anymore, no more guns or blood'

'No, not if you don't want to'

'And what happened to Mr Yusupov?' she asked anxiously. 'Is he going to come and make me do all those things again'

'No' Natasha replied 'I killed him, so he can never hurt you again'

_'Ty obeshchaesh?' _

_'Ya obeshchayu'_

* * *

By midmorning, when she had spent the past couple of hours, repeating the same routine every time they woke up one of the girls, Natasha was exhausted and all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed, preferably with Clint at her side. Therefore she was thankful to find that when she opened the door to Irina's room, the fifteen year old blonde haired Russian was not only awake, but sitting up reading some documents.

'How are you?' Natasha asked in Russian as she entered the room.

'I'm ok thanks' Irina replied looking up from the documents she was reading

'What are you reading?' Natasha asked curiously sitting down in the plastic seat next to Irina's bed.

'Just some stuff about the options S.H.I.E.L.D are giving me' Irina replied.

'But I thought that they had not discussed them with you yet?' Natasha asked puzzled

'They haven't, but your friend or teammate, Mr Stark, left them for me. He said I should know what was going on'

'Trust Tony to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's data base as soon as he gets back from a mission' Natasha muttered, before taking a closer look at the documents. 'They're in English' she commented.

'I can read and understand English quite well' Irina replied 'I'm just not very good at speaking it. The other girl's aren't so good, some better than others.'

'So what are the options they are giving you?' Natasha asked 'Agent Hill didn't say'

'Well I can either go with the younger girls or go through an extensive psychoanalysis test and join the S.H.I.E.L.D agent training program, or if I want I can go back to Russia'

'And what do you want to do?' Natasha asked curiously

'I don't know in the long term' Irina replied 'I can't imagine not training and fighting every day, but right now, I want to go back and find out what happened to my family and if they all perished in the fire Boris saved me from, or if some of them, my brother, my mother or even my grandparents are still alive. Gain a bit of closure, before I try and move on'

'You know that it was unlikely that no one survived that fire' Natasha replied 'Boris was always extremely efficient'

'I know, but I can hope that there is some trace of them left' Irina stated 'I was told that you killed Boris'

'Yes'

'Was it hard?' Irina asked curiously

'One of the easiest kills I've had in my life' Natasha replied, a satisfied smirk appearing on her face 'I made sure he paid for what he did to all of you'

'What are you going to do with Elena?' Irina suddenly asked 'I worked out that she must be your daughter'

'I don't know' Natasha told the younger girl honestly 'but I know that I'm not going to lose her again'

'Good luck Ms Romanova' Irina stated as Natasha stood up to leave the room

'And to you as well Irina' she replied before closing the door behind her, to leave the fifteen year old to her thoughts.

'How was Irina?' Clint asked as he handed Natasha an energy bar, knowing without asking that she was hungry.

'Recovering and working out what do do next' she replied, devouring the bar eagerly. 'Oh, that was so much better than kasha' she remarked as she took another one off Clint. 'Well, actually anything is better than kasha'

'They are about to wake up Elena' Clint stated as he led Natasha towards the room Elena had been put in, which was separate from the rest of the girls, because she had needed more medical attention than they did.

_' O Bozhe' _ Natasha gasped as she entered the room and saw her small daughter, lying in the bed, her bright red curls standing out it stark contrast to the whiteness of the sheets, fanning out around her head on the pillow like a fiery halo.

'It's going to be alright Tasha' Clint whispered to his partner, reaching down to squeeze her had reassuringly as she approached her daughter. 'Oh, you might want this' he stated, handing her the locket which contained a picture of her holding a baby Lena 'the medics took it off you when they brought you in' he explained

'Thank you' she whispered, clasping it around her neck, where it belonged. She sat down in the chair next to her daughter's bed as the doctors began to wake Elena up.

Natasha held her breath as Elena's eyelids started to flicker and she wondered if Elena would remember who she was.

'_Mumiya' _Elena whispered, as her blue eyes found her mothers, putting a stop to Natasha's fears and reaching up to touch Natasha's face

_'Lenochka' _Natasha replied placing a kiss to the top of her head and caressing her daughter's cheek 'I'm here'

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out, but real life unfortunately took over. I hope you like this chapter and hopefully the next one will be up much sooner than this one was!**

**Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I've reached 50 reviews!  
**

**Cherry :)  
**

* * *

_Translations_

_Bezopasnyi - Safe_

_'Ty obeshchaesh?' - Do you promise?_

_'Ya obeshchayu' - I promise_

___' O Bozhe' - Oh God_

_'__Mumiya' - Mummy_

___'Lenochka' - Little Lena_


	13. Part 13

'Are you real?' Elena asked Natasha in whispered Russian

'Yes' Natasha replied, placing her hand over her daughter's small one, which was currently touching her face. 'I'm real'

'I thought you were are dream, I thought that I had dreamt that you came and saved me' Elena stated, almost tearfully

'I was there' Natasha replied reassuringly

'Why did it take you so long?' Elena asked, dropping her hand from her mother's face

Natasha looked lost for words at her daughter's question, her eyes flicking towards Clint, hoping he could help her, but he was standing by the door, looking like he was almost on guard. 'I thought you were dead' she finally responded. Even though she was an excellent liar, she knew she could not lie to her daughter.

Suddenly Elena gave a little yelp, cutting off whatever she was going to ask her Mother and causing Natasha to reach for the gun in the holster around her hips and Clint to whip his head around and adopt a more offensive position. 'Can you stop poking me with things!' Elena exclaimed in irate Russian, rubbing her arm, where the doctor had just taken a sample of her blood. The doctor looked at Elena in alarm, not understanding what the small Russian girl was saying and looked to Natasha. Natasha looked at Clint, who had understood what Elena had shouted and had relaxed. He just raised an amused eyebrow at Natasha as if to say, _She is so your daughter,_ before looking away again.

'She doesn't like having all these tests' Natasha explained to the doctor

'I see' the doctor replied, before placing the sample he had collected. 'Can you tell...'

'Elena'

'Can you tell Elena, that we are doing this to make sure she is better and it is for her own good' the doctor stated. 'Elena was the worst of all the girls you brought in, mild hypothermia, cracked ribs and an x-ray showed that she had some scarring in her lungs, though we don't know what caused that. However she seems to have no long lasting damage'

'Smoke inhalation' Natasha replied, looking down at her daughter, who was trying to follow the conversation.

'I know there was an explosion, Agent Romanoff, but it would not have caused this'

'No, but a fire when she was one, could have caused the damage' Natasha replied. 'If you looked at an x-ray of my chest, or any of the other girls, you would see exactly the same thing; it's how Boris likes to operate.'

'Right well then' the doctor stated standing up. 'Even woth the slight scarring she seems to be well so I think I will be able to tell Agent Hill that all the girls are well enough to be transported' and with that he strode out of the room, leaving just Clint and Natasha behind.

'What's going on?' Elena asked, seeing the worried look on her mother's face.

'The agency I work for is moving all the girls we rescued from the Black Widow Program, to a place where they can adjust to normality' Natasha replied.

'And does that include me?' Elena asked

'I don't know Lena' Natasha replied, stroking her daughter's face

'But I don't want to go, I want to stay with you' Elena cried, throwing her arms around a surprised Natasha's neck.

'I know _Lenochka' _Natasha replied, wrapping her arms tightly around her daughter, who was now burying herself into her mother's hair. Lena tensed

'Can you not call me that?' she asked hesitantly 'It's just that that's what the girl's used to call me, when they teased me for being the youngest.'

'I can try' Natasha replied with a sigh, she had always called Elena, _Lenochka,_ when she was a baby but if it upset her then she would stop it and she filed away that piece of information.

'I mean, nobody calls you _Natashen'ka_' Elena stated.

Clint chuckled, remembering the time when Natasha had punched him in the side of his head, knocking him out for days, when he had dared to call her by the affectionate form of her name

'Someone used to call me that once' Natasha replied, much to her partner's shock and she closed her eyes as images from her past flooded her mind. Long forgotten memories of ballrooms and chaste kisses at the stage door of the theatre, of a wedding night in a cheap hotel on the outskirts of St Petersburg and the voicemail he had left her when she was on a mission, just before the accident 'a long long time ago'

'Can we get out of here_ Mumiya?' _Elena asked, breaking Natasha out of her thoughts 'this room is like the one back in the compound where they would-' she couldn't finish her sentence and buried her head into Natasha's chest.

'They're not going to hurt you any more Lena' Natasha whispered

'Tasha, it might be a good idea to get Lena out of here, before Hill comes to get the girls and takes Elena away as well.'

'But how are we going to get her out of the infirmary without anybody noticing?' Natasha asked 'We can easily sneak in and out, but it's going to be harder with a child.'

'I've got an idea' her partner replied before walking over to the corner of the room and reaching into his pocket to find his phone.

'Yes...no... we need a distraction...no not to do that...we need to break Elena out of the infirmary...I'll fill you on all the details later...can you just do it? Thank you' and with that Clint hung up.

'I never thought I would see the day that Hawkeye would be calling up Tony Stark for help' Natasha remarked, her arms still wrapped around Elena protectively.

'Well we need a distraction and Tony Stark always jumps to take any opportunity to annoy Fury, so it's a win-win situation' Clint replied. 'Oh by the way, Thor's back from Asgard, wondering how the 'fair Lady Natasha' is and Tony wants to know what colour to paint Elena's bedroom'

'Paint her what?'

Clint's reply was cut off by the sound of alarms going off around the helicarrier. 'I guess that is our cue to go' he remarked as he opened the door to the room and watched as agents rushed past in a hurry.

Carefully Natasha pulled out the IV drip from the back of her daughter's hand before picking Elena up. 'Ready?' she asked Clint

'Ready' he replied and together they ran out of the infirmary, joining the throng of agents who were heading towards the control room. Clint and Natasha , who was carrying Elena, were able to travel through the helicarrier towards their quarters without being noticed in the general panic.

'My room or yours?' Clint asked

'Yours' Natasha replied as she walked down the corridor towards Clint's quarters 'my room will be the first place they look.

'Maria caught us in here together this morning' Clint stated as Natasha quickly typed in the key code

'And she's not going to tell people to come and barge down your door, because she thinks we're sleeping together, because who's going to believe her, to everyone else at S.H.I.E.L.D we are cold and calculating Black Widow and Hawkeye, and besides, they're all scared of us.' Balancing Elena on her hip, she opened the door and they entered the room.

'Ok you can turn it off now' Clint said on the phone to Tony, to get him to turn off the alarm, which was now starting to give everybody a head ache. 'Yes I'll come over'

'Stark says that his security breach should keep everyone occupied for a while' Clint reported when he got off the phone. 'I also apparently have to go over and tell them what's going on' he stated apologetically to Natasha, hating to leave her behind.

'Oh don't worry about us' Natasha replied from where she was sitting on the couch, with her daughter's head in her lap, gently playing with Lena's curls. 'We can look after ourselves, can't we Lena?'

'_Da_' Elena replied with a smile, after Natasha had repeated the question in Russian

* * *

'Well, look who has dropped in!' Tony Stark exclaimed in his overenthusiastic manner 'the bird has landed'

'Nice to see you too Stark' Clint replied as he walked down from where he had parked the quinjet on the landing strip at the top of the tower to greet the multimillionaire.

'Everyone is down in the common room' Tony told his fellow avenger, referring to the lounge area on the same floor as the kitchen, where they generally spent their free time 'and they want to know what's happening'

After Clint had been greeted by the rest of the team plus Pepper, he sat down in the empty chair, with a beer in his hand and began to tell them what S.H.I.E.L.D was doing.

'From what I know, Irina is still making her decision but is leaning more towards going back to Russia, but the younger girls are going to be placed in secure homes where they can be rehabilitated' Clint explained.

'And what is the problem with that?' Bruce asked 'why did you need Tony to cause a diversion?'

'Thing is that they are including Elena as one of those girls and they were probably going to take her away. If they did that Natasha would be devastated, she's already lost her once'

'But don't they know that Elena is Natasha's daughter?' Steve asked

'No, only Hill and Fury and unfortunately, she follows everything by the book and he's away at the moment' Clint replied

'What do you mean Fury's away?' Stark asked in alarm

'Well, he not on the helicarrier' Clint replied 'I think I heard one of the other personnel saying that he had to go to a meeting'

'I'll look into it later' Tony remarked, making a mental note to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's data base again since it was so unusual for the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D to leave headquarters.'

'So where is the fair Lady Natasha?' came the booming voice of Thor

'She's back at headquarters with Elena. As a result of Tony's distraction, we were able to get Elena out of the infirmary to my quarters, where Natasha is now staying with her' Clint replied

'Your quarters' Tony quipped waggling his eyebrows suggestively. 'Ouch!' he exclaimed as Pepper elbowed him in the ribs for behaving inappropriately as everyone else laughed

* * *

'You're humming that tune again' Elena remarked from her position lying on Natasha's lap

'Am I?' Natasha asked 'I didn't realise, I can stop if you want'

'How come I recognise it?' Elena asked curiously sitting up and turning to face her mother. 'You said it was from a ballet, but when would I have seen one of them?'

'You recognise it because that's how I got you sleep every night' Natasha whispered. 'I would wrap my arms around you and rock you back and forth to the music from Swan Lake.'

'What was I like as a baby?' Elena asked

'You were so small with this mop of bright red curls, bright blue eyes and a gummy smile which could light up the room' Natasha replied opening the locket around her neck, to show her daughter the picture inside. 'You were only a couple of weeks old when Tatiana took that picture of us at your christening. I was staying with her at the time and I could hardly offend her beliefs and say no. She later gave me this locket containing the picture'

'You look different' Elena commented, looking closely at the picture of her slightly younger mother holding a small red haired baby.

'Well I guess my hair was much longer back then' Natasha remarked, running hand through her now short curls, remembering what it had been like to have almost waist length hair back then.

'No, it's like you look happier in the picture' Elena stated

'It was before I lost you' Natasha replied, closing the locket and tucking it back under her top and pressing a kiss to the top of her daughter's head.

'What happened?' Elena asked, settling into her mother's arms as Natasha wrapped her arms around her instinctively and hugging Elena tightly

'I guess I should start at the very beginning' Natasha stated, getting comfortable on the couch 'I was working undercover, on a mission, as a ballerina, dancing in a production of Swan Lake in St Petersburg...'

* * *

'Tash, Lena, I'm back!' Clint called out as he entered his quarters. 'Pepper's packed me some food for you-' he stopped, noticing that his room was eerily quiet and he reached for the pistol that he kept in his back pocket. He walked cautiously further into the room, wondering if in his absence they had come and taken both Elena and Natasha away. Then he heard a little whimper and saw Natasha and Lena curled up next to each other on the couch fast asleep.

Smiling and the scene in front of him, Clint quietly put the food he was carrying down on coffee table, before going to retrieve a blanket from the bottom of his cupboard and he placed on top of the sleeping duo.

* * *

**Thanks once more for the wonderful response I have received for this story and I doubt with out all you lovely readers I would have got this far, so thank you!**

**I hope you like this chapter and I now have the rest of the story planned out, so now I just need to find the time amongst school work to write it all down.  
**

**Please let me know what you thought of this chapter!  
**

**Cherry :)  
**


	14. Part 14

**A/N: Hi! So sorry for the delay in this update, but school has been incredibly busy this week. I hope you like this chapter, which in my plan was called the 'ballet chapter'. If you were to listen to anything whilst reading this chapter, might I suggest music from Swan Lake, the main theme in particular, especially near the end of this chapter.**_  
_

**I appolgise now if I have used some incorrect ballet terminology. I have not danced ballet in years so I am afraid the names of the steps come from Google. Feel free to let me know if I have spelt any of them wrong.  
**

**I really hope you enjoy this chapter and hopefully the next one will be up soon!  
**

**:)**

* * *

_Couru, couru, __couru, _ arms in the air, jeté, _jeté__, Natasha muttered to herself under her breath, as she performed the required steps. She could almost hear the fearsome choreographer shouting in her head, whacking her and her fellow corps de ballet members with his stick. With her feet turned out in third position and her arms held crossed over each other above her white tutu, Natasha watched as the prima ballerina, playing Odette danced with the male lead, who was playing Prince Siegfried__._

_This had been the first mission she had actually really enjoyed doing. She had had to join the St Petersburg Ballet Company as the youngest member of their corps de ballet, even though she knew she was probably better than the prima ballerina and was now performing Swan Lake, night after night because her target was the son of a wealthy oil baron, who was also the patron of this ballet company.__ Discreetly as she moved her arms up and down to Tchaikovsky's lyrical music, she looked out under her eyelashes and caught sight of her target, sitting in a private box just to the right of the stage, leering at the dancers bellow. _

_She full lips curved into a smirk, which she quickly masked, as she remembered the choreographer's stern words: 'don't smile, you are sad swans'. She had thought that Madame Bolshoi, the Red Room's Ballet Mistress was scary, but this choreographer, was worse, much worse. _

_After what seemed liked years of being in the back of the scene, the two main dancers came out of their final position and the music changed into the music for the swans exit. With one last glance at her target, Natasha made her way through the complicated ballet steps (jeté, _brisé, _couru) before running off stage as the Act ended._

_After the interval, in the final act of the ballet, Natasha waited patiently, once again as an inconspicuous swan as Odette and her prince battled the evil __Von Rothbart before following each other into the lack to break the sorcerers spell, waiting for the ballet to be over so she could try and engage her target and work out the best way for her to do her job. After the final curtain call, the thick red curtains of the St Petersburg opera house closed, Natasha headed back to the dressing room, which she unfortunately shared with another six girls. _

_Just as she had finished unpinning her white, feathered head piece, one of the back stage managers popped his head around the dressing room door, causing several of the girls to scream and hastily cover themselves. _

_'You, with the red hair' the man called out, pointing at Natasha 'there is someone at the stage door who wants to talk to you'_

_'Who?' Natasha asked curiously, wondering who could be asking after her_

_'I don't know, but he looked rich, so I wouldn't keep him waiting' the man replied before leaving the room._

_Ignoring the curious whispers of the other girls in the dressing room, who were wondering why someone who wanted to see little Natalia, Natasha quickly grabbed her old worn coat, which contained her trusty revolver and a knife, and still wearing her white tutu as well as her ballet shoes, she headed towards the state door._

_'Ah, here she is' came a young man's voice addressing her as she stepped outside 'this was the red haired swan I was telling you about Viktor'_

_'I'm sorry I did not believe you Alexei' the other man replied and Natasha whipped her head around recognising that it was the voice of her target'_

_'What is your name?' the first man, Alexei, asked her_

_'Natalia' she replied cautiously, wondering what they wanted with her_

_'Alexei __Shostakov at your service' he stated, before pressing a kiss to her hand. 'I was wondering...well...'_

_'What my friend here is trying to say' the more confident Viktor interrupted 'is that he was much taken with your dancing this evening and he was wondering whether you would like to come to dinner with us tonight'_

_Alexei blushed and Natasha looked shocked, of all the things she had expected to be asked at the stage door, being asked out to dinner was not one of them. On the one hand, she wanted to decline their invitation, but on the other hand she recognised that this was a great opportunity to learn more about her target so she could work out the best way to act. If that meant that she had to flirt a lot with the target's friend, who was obviously completely taken with her, then so be it._

_'That you for your offer' she replied hesitantly, trying to keep up the act of a slightly shy ballet dancer. She had found out after many missions that acting shy around men meant that they underestimated you. 'If you would just allow me to finish getting changed I'll be out soon' and with that she raced back into the theatre towards the dressing room._

_'What was that?' came the voice of Sergei, one of her handlers in the KGB who was keeping an eye on her, who was posing as a stage hand _

_'The target and his friend just asked me out for dinner' she replied quickly, before continuing towards her dressing room. Once again, ignoring her fellow dancers, she quickly pulled off her tutu, tights and unwound the ribbons which kept her Pointe Shoes on. After she had slipped on a black dress, (that was not too short, but still showed off all her good bits), she quickly applied her makeup, and with one last look in the mirror, headed back towards the stage door._

* * *

_'... And then Alexei turned around, tripped over the dog, crashed into Mrs Lenin's precious roses and landed head first in the gardener's compost heap' Ivan recounted as they finished their dinner at one of the most posh restaurants in St Petersburg._

_Natasha gave a flirty laugh, leaning forward ever so slightly, to give Vikor an enticing view of her clevage, as he finished his story about his and Alexei's childhood antics and poured himself another drink. 'You seemed to have a fun time growing up' Natasha remarked_

_Alexei just blushed slightly. 'I'm just going to use the bathroom' be muttered hastily standing up and leaving Natasha and Vikor alone._

_'And so Miss Natalia how did you spend your childhood?' Ivan asked_

_'Training' Natasha replied evasively _

_'Well it paid off; I heard that you were one of the youngest ballerinas in the company'_

_'Yes' Natasha replied _

_'Can I get you another drink?' Ivan asked as Alexei returned. Natasha used her target's momentary distraction to sneak her special ring out of her cleavage and placed it on her finger. _

_'No thanks, I don't think the choreographer would appreciate it if I turned up for work tomorrow with a hangover' Natasha stated, noticing a flash of annoyance cross Vikor's face. She could tell that he wanted to get her drunk in order to take advantage of her._

_'But I insist' Vicktor said, reaching for the bottle of vintage wine_

_'Viktor, she said she does not want any more' Alexei interrupted, picking up the bottle and moving it out of his grasp. Natasha gave Alexei a grateful smile._

_'I must be heading back' she said, noticing the time on the grand clock in the corner. 'Thank you for taking me out' she said standing up _

_'It was my pleasure Natalia' Alexei replied with a charming smile, helping her put on her coat. 'We should meet up again' _

_'I'd like that' she replied impulsively, before wondering what had made her say that_

_'Yes, thank you for being such good company' Ivan said almost bitterly, unhappy that Natasha had got away and his needs were not going to be relieved by the red haired ballerina that night._

_'It was lovely to meet you' Natasha replied, with fake sincerity, shaking his hand._

_'Ouch' she heard him mutter before she walked out of the restaurant into the snow covered St Petersburg, with a small smirk._

* * *

_'Natalia, have you heard?' Nina asked as they warmed up for their performance he following day_

_'Heard what?' Natasha replied_

_'That Viktor, the patron's son, was found dead this morning' Nina stated_

_'No!' Natasha replied with feigned shock as she silently thanked the person who had invented poison rings._

* * *

'How long has she been here?' Clint asked Elena in Russian as they stood by the window which looked into the training room, the music from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake filtered out of the room.

'Since we saw Irina off this morning' Natasha's red haired daughter replied. 'She said she was coming down here because she needed to train and she did for a while but then suddenly she walked over to the computer in the corner and this music started coming out.'

'Do you know why?' Clint asked

'I don't know' Elena answered 'though she has been humming this piece a lot lately, apparently she used to rock me to sleep to it.'

Clint just nodded, before turning his attention back to his partner. He watched as Natasha dancing around the room with her eyes closed, completely oblivious to her surroundings. He had never seen her dance like this before. She looked so beautiful, lost in the music.'

'There's nothing like a classically trained ballet dancer' came the voice of Agent Hill from behind Clint. 'I didn't mean to surprise you' she added after Clint whipped around and reached for his gun. 'I just came down to tell you that the other Avengers have arrived and that Director Fury is scheduled to be back later today. So you can talk about' and she gestured to Elena, who was stood on her tip toes watching her mother dance.

Clint just nodded as Agent Hill walked out of the room. She had not been very happy when she had discovered that Clint and Natasha had been able to smuggle Elena out of her hospital room, but she knew that it would not be wise to go changing in and take away the child who was guarded by two very deadly assassins. She had thought that she had miss heard what Agent Romanoff had said that morning in the infirmary and so had been surprised when the DNA test results came back stating that Elena was definitely Natasha's child, which had not at all fitted with her picture of the red haired Russian agent. She had decided to drop the matter for the time being and to wait for Fury to deal with the two agents and the child.

As loud strange voices approached the training room, Elena jumped from where she had been watching her mother and ran to hide behind Clint, who was one of the only two adults she trusted.

'Hey Lena, it's ok, these are your Mum's friends and they helped rescue you' Clint said kindly, reaching behind him to hold the scared child's hand as the avengers approached. Clint had to admit even when they were not all suited up, they were still an imposing sight, so no wonder the small girl was frightened.

Upon hearing Clint's reassuring words, Elena came out from behind the archer but still held on tightly to his hand.

'So this must be little Miss Elena' Stark stated when he saw the red haired child.

'So this is the little spider?' Thor asked in his booming voice, which sent Elena back behind Clint.

'Yes' Clint replied as he began to coax Elena out again.

'No, that can't be Natasha!' Steve exclaimed as he stood by the window and watched Natasha dance.

'But how is she doing that' Tony remarked as he watched Natasha execute _32 fouettés en tournant_ perfectly 'she's not a ballerina'

'She was a ballerina a long time ago, before I was born' Elena stated, as Clint translated everything everyone was saying.

'Really?' Dr Banner asked with interest, after Clint interpreted Elena's Russian babble

'It's where she met my father'

* * *

Natasha closed her eyes and let the music take over. She had come to the training room so she could train because she knew that if she did not start soon, she would get out of practise however she had craved something more than just practising her punches and kicks which was why she had walked over to the computer at the side of the room and had put on music.

As she stretched out her body to the familiar music she was taken back to her time in the St Petersburg ballet. She imagined she was on the stage, dancing, not as an inconspicuous swan in the background but as the Prima Ballerina, to the delight of the crowd. She broke away from the steps which had been drummed into her head by the megalomaniac that was the choreographer all those years ago and performed her own steps.

When she was the Black Widow, her face had to be expressionless mask, not betraying any emotions and her heart had to be closed off. However as she danced, loosing herself in one Tchaikovsky's greatest masterpieces, all her emotions which she had bottled up over the past week, during her capture and on the helicarrier, came out. To the oboe and the harp, she held an _arabesque_ and to the loud dramatic music of the brass she performed a series _pirouettes, _her red hair flying around her face, before leaping into a graceful _g__rand jeté_, feeling freer than she had felt in a long time as she soared through the air. As the music built up, towards its finale, she performed _32 fouettés en tournant, _spinning around and around on one leg, as she did what was arguably one of the hardest ballet steps.

Panting slightly as the music ended, she collapsed to the ground feeling physically and emotionally drained. When she finally opened her eyes and looked up she realised that she now had an audience. She quickly wiped the tears which had leaked out of her eyes, when the music was at its most emotional and headed towards the door to see what the Avengers wanted.

Elena leapt at her as soon as she opened the door, begging her to teach her how to dance like that however before she could reply, both to her daughter and to her teammates, who all wanted to ask her questions a black, eye patch wearing, formidable man appeared.

'I believe we need to talk' Director Fury stated sternly, looking directly at Natasha with his one eye


	15. Part 15

As she walked behind Fury, holding on tightly to her daughter's hand, Natasha recited what she planned to say to the Director in her head. She knew that this conversation was a long time coming. The other girls they had rescued from the compound had gone days ago and Irina had flown back to Russia this morning, with Natasha uncharacteristically asking her to keep in touch and to let her know if she found her family. Her daughter was the last thing, in S.H.I.E.L.D's eyes, that they needed to clean up.

Natasha knew S.H.I.E.L.D well enough to know that they were not particularly happy with her but she was going to fight for Elena. She was not going to let them be parted again. She had been an assassin for most of her life but if it came down to it she would happily give it all up, if that meant that that she could stay with her daughter.

Natasha felt Clint walk up to be alongside her and he surreptitiously sneaked his hand into hers, before giving it a quick comforting squeeze to show that he supported her and Natasha gave his had a squeeze back, acknowledging that she understood what he was trying to convey and she was grateful for it. Walking with her daughter on one side and her partner on the other, gave her a sense of strength, as they entered the conference room, with their fellow avengers taking up the rear. They eventually all filed into the room sitting around the long glass table, with Fury standing at one end, starting down at them, at the other.

Elena sat to Natasha's left quietly, Tony played with his beard, Clint's eyes flicked around the room, Thor was humming something, Bruce was counting, Steve was tapping his fingers on the table and Natasha was assessing the quickest way out if the room should things go south, as they all waited to the meeting to begin.

'Agent Hill take the child away' Fury ordered, his right hand woman, who appeared from the side of the room.

'No!' Natasha and Elena exclaimed at the same time.

'No leave mumiya' Elena added in heavily accented English, giving Fury a glare which was exactly identical to the one her mother was giving him.

Natasha smirked; Elena understood more English than she let on and Fury, witnessing how Elena clung to Natasha's arms, just nodded his head in defeat before carrying on with the meeting.

'It seems, Agent Romanoff, that you have been keeping secrets' the Director Fury stated, leaning forward and staring down at the red haired assassin with his one eye.

'Well technically Director, you know most of them, I only kept one and that's because I thought she was dead' Natasha replied strongly, staring straight back at her superior.

'So Agent Romanoff, you wouldn't mind answering some of mine and your teammate's questions?'

'No' Natasha replied, yes she did mind but she knew it would be better for her in the long term to cooperate and tell Fury what he wanted. 'So how do want me to start spilling my darkest secrets?' she asked coyly

'Why don't you start from the beginning?' he suggested.

Natasha sighed and sank back into the black leather chair. It was easily for him to say, 'start from the beginning', but where did it all begin for her? When she was born or when she was taken to the red room or when Alexei was killed and she became the Black Widow? 'I was born on the outskirts Stalingrad after the fall of the Soviet Union...'

* * *

'And then I realised it was Elena' Natasha finished, bringing her story to a close and stroking her daughter's hair. She had told them a rough outline of her life, of course there had been stuff she had missed out like what really happened behind the scenes in Budapest and some of the more interesting missions she had Clint had been on, which no one apart from her and her partner needed to know.

'How old were you?' Bruce asked finally as Natasha drank some water to quench her thirst and rehydrate her mouth which was dry from talking. Natasha had been particularly vague about how old she was throughout the momentous events in her life, possibly so she didn't shock her team mates.

'What, you mean, what age I was when I first killed?' she asked

'First killed, first mission, got married, had Elena, met Clint' Bruce clarified as the rest of the team, including Fury sat forward eagerly, because they too had wanted to find out these pieces of information.

'My first kill was at 8, I had my first real mission at 15, I married Alexei at 19 and had Elena just after I turned 21' she replied with a whisper as Clint held her hand under the table

'Damn Romanoff, you were so young, practically a child' Tony exclaimed, shocked by how much the woman he was sat near to had gone through

'I wasn't really' Natasha replied softly. 'You've taken someone's life, you are never a child, and you are no longer innocent. I'm so glad I saved her from that fate' she added as Elena, who had obviously understood some of what her mother had been saying, reached over from the chair she was sitting in and wrapped her small arms around her mother's neck.

The other Avengers, apart from Clint, were quite shocked by the scene, anyone else who dared to put their arms around the Black Widow's neck was signing their own death warrant, but Natasha just wrapped her arms around her daughter and buried her face in her daughter's red curls whilst whispering something undecipherable in Russian into Elena's ear.

'Just one more thing' Steve says almost hesitantly, hating to break up the mother-daughter moment that they were witnessing. 'How do you know that they killed your husband to turn you into the Black Widow? Couldn't he have just been killed in an accident?'

'Alexei was not killed in an accident' Natasha replied fiercely 'He was too good a pilot to let that happen to him and besides once I had joined S.H.I.E.L.D , I hacked into the KBG's database and found files ordering the elimination of Alexei to further the Black Widow program. He was killed because of me and I will never forgive myself for it'

'Did you love him?' Clint, who up until now had been silent throughout most of Natasha's story, asked.

'No, how could I have loved him?' Natasha responded 'when I had had all the love in me stamped out. I might not have loved him, but he made me laugh, adored me, kept me sane and in touch with reality. When he died, I was so angry and so, so lost and confused, that the KGB took advantage of that and the Black Widow emerged.' Natasha looked at Clint, next to her, trying to reassure him that he shouldn't worry and that he meant more to her than Alexei ever did.

'Thank you for cooperating with us Agent Romanoff' Fury said finally.

'So what do you want me to do now?' She asked 'Do you want my letter of resignation, because there is no way on this earth that I am giving Lena up, not when I've just got her back'

'The Council won't like it-' Fury started

'I don't care about the bloody Council, they care nothing for me or my daughter. If we had left it up to them, we would be dead by now because it was you and Council who alerted the KGB to the compound's existence.'

'We had no idea what the KGB would do'

'But it shows that after all these years, working for you and your precious S.H.I.E.L.D, you still don't trust me and my instincts. I was right when I said that the KGB was not behind the reinvigoration of the Black Widow program, but you did not believe me and now you have the blood of eight girls on your hands' she exclaimed loudly, letting all the anger she felt towards the Director out. 'You don't trust me, you don't trust any of us and it's starting to get on my nerves' she continued. 'You expect us to risk our lives day after day, year after year, for you and this organisation, and half the time you've only told us half of the information. I'm surprised I'm not dead, or perhaps that was yours and the Council's plan?' she asked, glaring at the Director. 'The Black Widow's done too much and is too dangerous to be kept alive, so let's try and get her killed in action?'

'Agent Romanoff, you're being unreasonable-'

'Just answer the damn question Fury!' Natasha shouted, interrupting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Director remained silent as if contemplating what to say, but Natasha was impatient and could not stand waiting.

'My resignation will be on your desk by the end of the day' she said finally 'and you can tell the Council that the Black Widow is no longer your control, and you know that if you send any agents after me, they won't stand a chance.' Natasha then stood up, glared at Fury one final time, picking up a now tired Elena and stalking out of the conference room, back towards Clint's quarters, where they had been staying.

'I suggest Sir that you think of something quickly, before you lose one of the most valuable assets this organisation has ever had' Clint said before standing up and following his partner out of the room, silently telling Fury that if Natasha went, then they would also lose him as well.

* * *

When Clint got back to his room he found Natasha furiously backing all her belongings into her duffle bag, muttering quietly to herself in Russian, whilst Elena sat cross legged on the bed, watching her mother carefully. He calmly walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist. Natasha twisted around to see who it was and upon seeing her partner she uncharacteristically collapsed into his arms.

'What are we going to do?' she whispered 'where are we going to go? I should not have flipped like that; I should have been calmer and kept my emotions in check, but I thought that if I didn't put up a fight they would take Elena away'

'You had every right to have a go at Fury, after what he has put you through' Clint replied, pressing a kiss to the red head's forehead

'But what happens now?' she whispered 'they are going to come after us'

'We will go back to the tower to plan and then maybe we'll head to one of our safe houses, maybe that one by the lake, that no one knows about and then we will just disappear' Clint replied

'Sounds like a good plan' Natasha mumbled into Clint's shirt.

* * *

Natasha snuck along the corridor and entered the main control room. After having a quick look around, she headed over to Fury's desk and was about to deposit both her and Clint's letters of resignation when she heard a voice behind her.

'I never meant to doubt you Agent Romanoff' Director Fury stated as he appeared out of the shadows and now walked towards the Russian assassin, who was now holding her gun out in front of her. 'You can put the gun away, Agent' the eye patch wearing man ordered 'I think you should have a look at this' and he handed Natasha a folder. 'Go away and have a read of it, but I think you will find it acceptable.'

'Yes Sir' Natasha replied, curtly

You're a damn good agent Romanoff and I won't let you leave this organisation that easily, so I've made a few allowances and if the Council doesn't like, well, they can go fuck themselves. Now go and take some time off and I'll contact you when a mission that needs your expertise comes in' and with that he left the room, leaving Natasha to flick through the folder he had given her. As she scanned its contents, her full lips turned up into a smile, they were going to be ok.

* * *

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! **

**I hope you liked this one, I'm not entirely happy with it and I found it really hard to write but I knew I had to get it done. We are nearing the end of this story now and I think there is only one more chapter to go!  
**

**Thank you once again and hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!  
**

**Cherry :)  
**


	16. Part 16

'That was very impressive Agent Luzin' Fury remarked to the young agent standing in front of him. 'I think The Ghost and The Widow will be able to go on missions soon' he added before closing the folder he had been reading and striding out of the room, his black leather coat billowing out behind him.

'I told you, you could do it' Natasha told Irina, once Fury had completely disappeared

'But I really thought that I had mucked up, when I nearly blew my cover during the mock undercover operation' Irina replied.

'You've been learning from the best, so there was no way that you were going to fail' Natasha stated. 'Do you want to come back with me tonight?' she asked the 18 year old Russian.

'No, I think I'll just crash in my quarters' Irina replied 'I'm absolutely exhausted after that sparring session we had earlier'

'Well I think that Fury was going to give us a couple of days off, so I'll see you soon, feel free to pop over to the tower any time' Natasha stated, before waving goodbye to the young agent and walking out of the S.H.I.E.L.D ground base and hailing a taxi to take her back to Stark Tower.

'Where is everyone JARVIS?' the red haired assassin asked the A.I as she stepped into the elevator, which would take her up to her and Clint's floor, right at the top of the tower.

'Mr Stark and Miss Potts are currently talking in Mr Stark's office, The Captain is in the gym, Dr Banner is working on something in the lab, Thor is in New Mexico with Miss Foster, Mr Barton is-' JARVIS' ramble was cut off by the ping of the elevator alerting Natasha to the fact that they had reached her floor.

'Thanks JARVIS, I'll find out where the others are for myself' she said as she left the elevator and made her way into her apartment, the one she shared with Clint and the girls. 'Please make sure that no one come up here until at least after nine tomorrow and if Fury calls saying that either Clint or I have a mission, you can tell him to piss off'

'Noted Ms Romanoff' the A.I replied, before leaving the apartment in silence. Even though it was at the top of the tower, having spectacular views out over Manhattan, it still not quite big enough for a two year old and Natasha knew that they would probably have to move out and find a proper house soon.

She dumped her gun on the coffee table in the corner, before softly padding across the carpeted floor towards her young daughter's bedroom. Without making any noise, she slowly opened the bedroom door and crept inside. She was greeted by the sight of her two year old daughter, Sofia, curled up with her squidgy spider cuddly toy and thumb in mouth, fast asleep in her bed by the window.

When Natasha and Clint had arrived back at Stark tower, having been able to both keep Elena and their jobs, a they had celebrated rather enthusiastically, with quite a bit of vodka involved and nine months later a screaming Sofia Barton had entered the world, with her mother vowing never to let her partner sleep with her again. Natasha bent down and stroked her small daughter's strawberry blonde curls, straightened her blanket before pressing a kiss to the top of her daughter's head before exiting the room.

She then entered her other daughter's room, to find Elena tucked up in bed with a book resting against her knees.

'Elena, _lyubimaya' _ you should be asleep by now, you've got school in the morning' Natasha said gently, walking over to her daughter and taking the book out of Elena's hands, with some protest, and placing it on the girl's beside table.

'But I hadn't finished the chapter' Elena replied unhappily 'and anyway I wanted to stay up until you came home'

'Well I'm here now' Natasha stated, caressing her daughter's face 'and I'm sure the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione can wait until the morning, but you need to go to sleep'

'Night _Mumiya' _Elena replied yawning as she buried herself under her duvet

'Night _Lenochka' _Natasha said as she turned out the light before heading towards her and Clint's room.

'I expected the girls to be in bed, but not you' she remarked as she spotted her partner lying on the king sized bed with his eyes closed.

'I'm tired' Clint muttered as Natasha walked around the room, taking off her cat suit and finding the things she needed to have a shower. 'Trying to keep Sofia amused, hiding from Tony and then helping Elena with her homework is very tiring' he added, trying to defend himself.

'Aww, poor little Hawkeye is exhausted after doing an almost nine year old's math homework' Natasha teased before heading to have a well deserved shower in the en-suite.

Clint sighed before leaning back against the pillows. Trying to balance their careers and looking after two girls was exhausting work and he and Natasha had hardly any time to themselves. They never seemed to go on missions together anymore, both taking it in turns to stay at home and look after the kids whilst the other carried out missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. Sometimes he wished that they could just leave the organisation and be a normal family, even if it was just for a couple of days. He wanted all of them to go on holiday. He wanted them to go to the beach, away from both Fury and the rest of the Avengers. They all needed time to relax without any threats breathing down the back of their necks. He wanted to build sandcastles with Sofia, swim with Lena in sea and lie on the sand with Natasha, staring up at the stars.

Clint's daydreams were interrupted by a now clean Natasha emerging from the steamed up en-suite and climbing into bed neck to him.

'What are you thinking about?' she asked Clint, recognising his thinking face as she moved closer to him, their foreheads practically touching

'I just wish we could go on a holiday' Clint replied wistfully. 'A normal family holiday, with no guns or shooting or any kind of danger what so ever' he added, clarifying his definition of a holiday, since his and Tasha's 'holidays' in the past, had normally ended in bloodshed.

'I think we could take some time out this summer' Natasha replied, surprising her partner by not shooting down his idea 'by then Irina should be ready for solo missions'

'How did she do?' Clint asked

'Passed with flying colours' Natasha replied proud of her protégé. Irina had come back to USA last year, having found that the only family member that had not perished in the fire had been her _Babushka. _Irina had stayed with her in Russia; trying to remember her past, but after her _Babushka_ had passed away in a harsh winter, Irina had returned S.H.I.E.L.D. and had asked whether Natasha could complete her training. This request had shocked Natasha, who had just some back from maternity leave, because she had expected Irina not to want to become an agent after all she had been through at the compound, but with Fury's permission, she had taken the young Russian girl under her wing. The Black Widow and the Winter Ghost, as Irina became known as a result of her blonde hair and ability to blend in, were a well matched pair. Once Irina had fully come out of her shell, she and Natasha were very similar, which was not surprising since once upon a time, she was being trained to impersonate her mentor.

The other girls the Avengers had rescued from the Black Widow Program were also doing well. Most of them had adapted to life in America and were happy normal girls, whose past was just a forgotten blur. Natasha still liked to keep an eye on them, feeling a connection to them because she had been like them a long time ago. Lena, after a couple of months of adjustment, had been fine, picking up English extremely quickly and learning to trust the rest of the Avengers as much as she trusted her mother and Clint. She was now a nine year old, who was incredibly bright, who enjoyed martial arts and gymnastics and who loved being an older sister.

'We should probably get some sleep' Clint muttered tiredly 'Fury will probably have something for me in the morning.

'I told JARVIS to tell Fury that he can piss off if he tries to give us a mission' Natasha replied, snuggling into her partner's chest under the covers.

'Well if that's the case, sleep can wait' Clint remarked with a cheeky smile bending down and capturing Natasha's lips with his.

.

.

* * *

_**The End...**_

**Well for now at least!  
**

**A HUGE THANK YOU to eveyone who has read and reviewed this story. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of support this story has received and without you, I doubt I would have finished it. PLEASE review one last time and let me know what you thought and whether you would like to see more.  
**

**I have an idea for a sequel, set a couple of years later and also another Clint/Natasha story, not related to this one, which I will hopefully get round to writing soon.  
**

**Thank you once again, you have been amazing and I hope to see you soon!  
**

**Cherry :)  
**


	17. THE SEQUEL IS NOW UP :

The sequel to Lena is now up!

_ Natashen'ka_

_When Natasha is called in on one of her days off my Fury to do an interrogation she has to face an important part of her past, someone who was meant to be dead._

However I also plan on writing another story which will fill in the gaps between Lena, the epilogue and the start of Natashen'ka, which I intend to call Sofia. This story has been inspired by all the amazing reviews I received for the last chapter, some of which contained great ideas of what people wanted to see next, so this is where this story will come in.

I already have ideas for stories featuring Tony changing diapers and Clint adjusting to his role as a father, suggested in reviews _(thanks so much!) _as well as some of my own. So, please feel free to drop me some more ideas to add to the growing number which are building up in my head!

See you soon!

Cherry :)


	18. SOFIA IS NOW UP

Just a quick note to let you all know that the other sequel to Lena - _Sofia - _is now up.

The first one-shot features Lena, Clint, and epiphany and a red balloon

I really hope you go and check it out!

I have been away which is why there has been a lack of updates, but hopefully the next chapter of Natashen'ka will be up soon

Many thanks

Cherry :)


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